For the first 9 months of 2019, there have been 1,359,817 Chinese arrivals to the Philippines, surpassing the total number of Chinese arrivals in 2018 (Department of Tourism, 2019)

2017 – Chinese nationals were the top tourism spender, spending around $258 billion on tourism worldwide (Punongbayan, 2019).

Implications of Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (POGOs)
POGOs – online gambling firms regulated by the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR).
DOLE – around 38,578 workers involved in POGOs.
Other sources claim that there are around 100,000 – 250,000 Chinese workers in the country (Rey, 2019).
Sen. Richard Gordon, as cited from Leechiu Property Consultants, claims that there are up to 470,000 POGO workers in the country (Ramos, 2020)

POGOs
POGOs contributed around PHP 551 billion to the Philippine economy in 2019 (Rivas, 2019)
The PH Government could collect around PHP 2 billion per month due to taxes from POGOs.
PH were not able to collect around PHP 21.6 billion in 2019 (Rivas, 2019).

Irregular Migration

Both the issues of POGOs and irregular construction workers are cases of Irregular Migration.
BI – more than 2,000 irregular migrants arrested
Most were working for POGOs (Bureau of Immigration, 2019)
Construction workers apprehended for not having proper documentation

Irregular migrants should not be seen as criminals, but rather as victims of trafficking and modern slavery.
Would not be able to come to the PH without proper documentation such as AEPs and SWPs.