Recruiters set last ditch moves
to regain visas for OPAs
by JULIE JAVELLANA-SANTOS
OFW Journalism Consortium, Inc.

MANILA -- RECRUITMENT agencies deploying Filipina entertainers to Japan are launching a “last-ditch effort” to regain access to the Japanese labor market that has been restricted by new immigration rules that went into effect March 15.

"We have to take the initiative because our government has given up on us," president of the Philippine Association of Recruitment Agencies Deploying Artists (PARADA) Lorenzo Langomez said during the group's general membership meeting March 15.

"Many of us in the industry view March 15 as the beginning of the end," PARADA Vice President for External Affairs Leo Laforteza said.

Laforteza said the date of the meeting was not a coincidence. The meeting was meant both as a 'post mortem' and to inform the rest of the members about the mission that was scheduled to leave for Japan on Wednesday, the first day of the Holy Week celebration in the Philippines.

Langomez said Parada will send a mission to Japan to try to convince Japanese legislators to continue accepting Filipina overseas performing artists (OPAs).

He said the "last-ditch effort" will be shored up with the unofficial participation of Senator Manuel Villar and Representatives Cynthia Villar and Joey Hizon. Senator Villar had earlier filed a resolution urging the government to make high-level representation with Japan on the issue.

The three legislators, according to Langomez, would join him and PARADA Secretary-General Art Pangilinan in traveling to Japan and asking Japanese authorities to consider relaxing these guidelines that they say threatens to dampen the robust deployment of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) to that country.

POEA figures cite that the deployment of documented land-based OFWs to Japan rose by 19.09 percent to 74,480 in 2004 from 62,539 in 2003. From 2001 to 2004, Japan hired and rehired a total of 288,982 OFWs, or an average of 72,245 yearly, which is 58.7-percent higher than the average 45,512 OFWs deployed to Japan yearly in the previous four years from 1997 to 2000.

The 19.09-percent rise in OFW deployment from 2003 to 2004 is one of the highest on record.

According to Langomez, PARADA's membership covers 90 percent of the agencies placing OPAs in Japan, which, in turn, account for practically all of the 80,000 OPAs currently in Japan.

Ventures, failures, plans
Last January 20, an official delegation from the Philippine House of Representatives composed of Representatives Edcel Lagman and Roseller Barinaga, arrived in Japan on a similar mission, trying to get Japanese immigration to relax their new rules, but was also unsuccessful. This mission was part of an investigation into the matter by Lagman's Special Committee on Overseas Workers Affairs, under Barinaga's House Committee on Labor.

The failure of Lagman and Barinaga's efforts, and the later, equally unsuccessful effort of Foreign Affairs Secretary Alberto Romulo who met with Japanese Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura made PARADA decide to bring to Japanese legislators' attention their own action plan on the OPA issue.

PARADA's action plan, which Langomez and Alfredo Palmiery said they would present to influential members of the Japanese diet, includes a presentation of the present accreditation system. Langomez said the Artists Accreditation Card (AAC) features a "strengthened" security mechanism, meant to prevent the fraudulent sale, tampering or switching of cards.

Langomez added that they would explain to Japanese solons "the incredulity of OPAs being victims of human trafficking." A June 2004 report on human trafficking by the United States State Department saying that Japan had done little to prevent trafficking into Japan is said to have put pressure on Japan to clamp down on entertainer visas.

While some Japanese officials accused Filipinos of trafficking, according to Langomez, a report by the Japanese Police Agency shows that Filipinos are one of the most law-abiding citizens in Japan. In fact, no Filipino national has ever been caught by the Japanese national police and accused of involvement in human trafficking, he said. "The Philippines missed an opportunity to counter Japan's accusation," Langomez said.

The PARADA delegation would also try to establish the practical impossibility of fulfilling Japanese immigration's two requirements for an entertainer visa: two years' training/education outside Japan or experience in an entertainment venue also outside Japan.

Langomez said the Philippines has only one entertainment-related education institution outside Japan, the School of the Performing Arts of the state-owned University of the Philippines. Under the stringent new immigration rules, only one formal educational institution in the Philippines qualifies, and that is the UP School of the Performing Arts.

No auditions, no trials
PARADA membership committee chairman Ramon Estrella said they have 262 member agencies, 153 of whom have renewed their memberships for 2005. Only 11 member agencies have either changed addresses, have been inactive or expressed a desire to withdraw their membership.

At the moment, Pangilinan said no more entertainer visas to Japan are being issued. In the beginning, they estimated this would go down by 90 percent but the present scenario is even worse.

We have sent applications, but the Japanese embassy have been mum about these applications, Pangilinan said, describing the recruitment of OPAs to Japan “at a standstill”.
This was why Pangilinan said even before Japanese Immigration authorities began implementing the new rules last March 15, PARADA members were sending marketing missions to other countries in a bid to salvage their recruitment industries.

Meanwhile, the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) has issued guidelines advising OFWs that new standards of eligibility for the entry of foreign entertainers were already in force.

Labor Secretary Patricia Sto. Tomas said that the new requirement was contained in Japan's Ministerial Ordinance, Immigration and Recognition Law No. 7, Article 1, Section 2 issued on February 15, which took effect on March 15, 2005.

However, she said the entertainment visas of OFWs already in Japan will be considered under the "old immigration rules," sparing legitimate Filipino entertainers who are already in Japan with prior working visas from the effects of the new Japanese immigration measures.
Sto. Tomas said there would be no retroactivity in the implementation of the amendments to Japan's Immigration Act. Thus, entertainment visas granted before the date of implementation on March this year would be considered under the "old immigration rules," she said.

Langomez said this meant that those OPAs granted visas up to March 14 will still be able to leave by June, complete their six-month contracts and return to Manila in December. end