SBMA to cancel work permit of Chinese national with Covid-19
SUBIC FREEPORT — The Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) is set to cancel the special work permit of a Chinese national who infected with Covid-19.
SBMA Chairman and Administrator Wilma T. Eisma said she has directed the agency’s Visa Processing Office to cancel the Special Subic-Clark Work Visa (SSCWV) given to the Chinese patient because the holder has already resigned from work effective May 31.
“We’re taking this action because once a foreign national is no longer connected with a Subic-registered company, the employer must request for a downgrading of the employee’s special work visa,”
Eisma explained.
“But in this case, his former employer was not able to notify the SBMA because of the quarantine, so we have to set the record straight now,” she added.
The BCDA chief revealed that the said Chinese national was the same 29-year old male Chinese that the SBMA had announced on August 7 as the latest Covid-19 patient among guests and transient workers in the Subic Bay Freeport.
The announcement stirred some concern in the Subic community because the entry of tourists into the Freeport has been prohibited under Covid-19 quarantine rules.
Eisma said the Chinese patient was classified as a tourist or visitor by contact-tracers after learning that he had checked into a local hotel last June 6.
“The contact-tracers learned he was not a resident or an employed worker in the Freeport so he was classified as a tourist. In fact, he voluntarily had his swab samples taken on August 5 becausehe needed it in looking for a job,” Eisma added.
The SBMA official said that further investigation into the case of the Chinese patient revealed that he first arrived in the Philippines in November 2018 to work as a customer service representative for TeleEmpire, a POGO service company in this Fr eepor t .
Records from the Bureau of Immigration, meanwhile, showed that he briefly left the country on October 12 last year for a trip to China and came back three days later.