Koreans in the Philippines

Considered as Korea's first person to learn a Philippine language, he was able to use his interpretation skills conversing with the five Filipinos who were shipwrecked off Jeju Island in 1801 and were able to return home after nine years.

Some Korean soldiers came with the Imperial Japanese Army when it occupied the Philippines during World War II; three of these, from Uiju, are known to have married local women and to have chosen remain in the country permanently.

With the growth of the South Korean economy, companies in labour-intensive manufacturing industries responded to increasing wages by relocating their operations to other countries, including the Philippines, beginning in the 1980s.

Rather than arriving for purposes such as political safety or financial stability, they are rather coming to the Philippines for vacation, leisurely activities, business ventures, or for schooling.

In the early 2000s, the Philippines also began to become a transit point for North Korean refugees leaving China en route to South Korea, similar to the manner in which the country turned into way-station for Vietnamese boat people in earlier decades.

[citation needed] Increasingly, students are billeted in rented houses in expensive gated communities such as Barangay Ayala Alabang, Muntinlupa City.

[33] A plan for Korean investors to redevelop the Baguio Athletic Bowl in Burnham Park fell apart in early 2010 due to the city government's opposition to the facility's privatization.

[28] However, in 2007, it was estimated that, out of 55 Korean-run language schools in Baguio, 18 lacked the proper permits from the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA).

Residents complained of illegal businesses which violated foreign ownership limits and underpaid wages, and of loud parties held by Koreans in their apartments.

[42] The Hanjin Group has a US$1 billion shipbuilding project at Subic, estimated to comprise almost a third of total South Korean FDI in the Philippines in 2007 and was then the world's fourth largest shipyard.

[43] However, their investments have provoked environmental controversy, especially with their building of a US$20 million condominium complex for their managers in the Subic Watershed Forest Reserve, the home of the Aeta peoples.

[44] Korean investors are also building a $20 million industrial and tourism complex in Pangasinan comprising a fish farm, solar and wind power generation facilities, seaplane berths, and a monorail.

As early as 2005, a group of South Korean investors began setting up a golf academy at Suba, Paoay, Ilocos Norte.

[46] In 2007, the Real Enterprise Group, a South Korean hotel and casino operator, were reportedly interested in investing in tourism facilities in the province, especially beach resorts at Pagudpud and Paoay.

[9] A public controversy around this erupted in January 2010, when a North Korean ship carrying 2,800 metric tons of magnetite ran aground near Claveria, Cagayan on New Year's Day.

[52] Some reports claimed that the ship also carried marijuana and shabu, but an immigration officer was quoted as stating the materials in question were just butter and tea.

[2][58] The 200,000 tourist arrivals from South Korea to Cebu as of 2009 prompted a Korean development company to plan a P4.5 billion resort investment to get in on the action.

[65] However Korean students in the city are concerned over the "public safety" situation there due to what newspapers described as "rampant crimes" against them, and the Bacolod Language Center Association has requested increased police presence around the schools, especially at La Salle Avenue and Gallardo Street.

[68] Korean-owned Bio Green Manufacture and Processing have also invested in a cassava and jatropha oil plantations in the Tamlang Valley, aimed at the production of biofuels.

However, they have faced opposition from local residents due to the potential impact on food security, and have even had their tractors burned by the Negrense squad of the New People's Army at the towns of Santa Catalina and Siaton.

[86] The Korea International Cooperation Agency is also working with the local government of Davao del Sur on a P193.36 rice-processing plant designed to cut postharvest losses from 25% to 5%.

[95] 2011 statistics of the Philippine Bureau of Immigration showed that more than 6,000 Koreans held 9(f) visas enabling them to enroll in tertiary education, roughly twice as many as the next two most frequent nationalities (Chinese and Iranians).

[103] Their numbers include a large proportion of young people; according to Son Jung-Son of the Philippine-Korean Cultural Center in Seoul, over 1,500 Koreans under 20 years old arrive in the Philippines every month to study English.

[4] From November 2008 to April 2010, 128 Koreans took advantage of the Special Visa for Employment Generation, which grants indefinite stay to foreigners and their dependents who create 10 full-time jobs for Filipino workers.

[105] This point was brought to wide public attention when a video of actress Lee Da-hae mocked the Filipino accent on a KBS television show "went viral" among internet users in the Philippines.

[129] Mass weddings conducted by the Unification Church in the 1980s caused particular controversy and had a negative effect on Philippine-South Korean diplomatic relations.

[39] Relatively wealthy evangelists who continue to maintain a South Korean standard of consumption while living in the Philippines may also inadvertently evoke negative feelings from Filipinos, who expect a Christian pastor to be poor and sacrificing.

When looking at this from the perspective of a country that has culturally accepted the Orient-Occident Binary, it helps to explain the level of animosity South Koreans may have toward Filipinos.

"[131] Gong's response, rather than aligning Filipinos with the negative aspects of Western culture, chooses to point out their short stature and darker skin.

[135] According to the Cebu-based Kopino Foundation, a charitable organisation started by a local Korean businessman, the largest concentration can be found in Quezon City in Metro Manila.