"We saw a rise in the number of foreign nationals in the previous years due to emerging industries such as the online gaming industry," Morente said, referring to Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators, where 138,001 foreign nationals are employed based on DOLE and BI data. This has never been a problem in the past because of the relatively smaller number of foreign nationals working in the Philippines then," he also said. "We have made it easier for foreign nationals to comply with our laws," he said. "The procedures are simple, the process is now quicker, so there’s really no excuse for foreign nationals to not follow." Because of the macro issue of a rice shortage and it so happened that Chinese were selling rice, it therefore became a racial issue.

Source: Philippine Star May 01, 2019 06:11 UTC