The Bukidnon police have arrested 17 Chinese traders found illegally operating businesses in Valencia City.
Col. Surki Sereñas, Valencia police chief, said the Chinese nationals are in the country on tourists visas but were engaging in retail businesses that did not even have permits from local authorities.
Sereñas said the foreigners were rounded up, in coordination with the Bureau of Immigration, on Thursday, July 25.
“[The] Chinese nationals were apprehended due to incomplete immigration documents and were subsequently turned-over to Bureau of Immigration for appropriate action,” he said.
Sereñas said Valencia City is home to hundreds of Chinese mainlanders, most of them engaging in selling China-made household items, plastic ware, electronic gadgets, and other products.
Many of the Chinese nationals, Sereñas said, have been living in Valencia since 2000 but have not applied for naturalization or appropriate visas to be able to legally engage in any business in the country.
To make it appear that their stores are legally operating, the police official said many of the Chinese traders commonly use business permits registered to Filipinos.
Others, he said, would resort to outright fakery of licenses.
Sereñas said many of the Chinese traders have become victims of extortion by corrupt local officials and even by the New People’s Army, the armed wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines.
Police identified the arrested Chinese nationals as: Jin, Kuang Cai; Zheng, Chu Bao; Sy, Hill; Ta, Bryan; Ta, Jems; Co, Sevee; Zia, Anna;Chan, Junior; Hui, Jacky; Hui, Hehry; San, Joseph; Lee, Alvin; Chua, Ekin; Tan, Shao Hua; Lin, Kim; Homy, Andre; and Wee, Are.