MANILA - President Rodrigo Duterte said Saturday he cannot deport Chinese workers in the Philippines in fear of Filipinos being deported from China.

"Yung mga Chinese dito, hayaan mo 'yan, nandito [para] magtrabaho hayaan mo. Bakit? We have 300,000 Filipinos in China. Kaya hindi ako makasabi, umalis kayo dito deport ka doon. Eh kung bigla paalisin doon [300,000] of them?" Duterte said in a speech in Biñan City, Laguna.

Duterte earlier said the illegal workers in the Philippines should be deported but the issue should be approached "carefully."

• Duterte says 'be careful' on illegal Chinese workers in PH

"If you think that you are at a loss, you are at a disadvantage because there are so many Chinese nationals working here, remember we have the same equal amount of people of Filipinos who are there working in China," he said.

The Senate has launched a probe into the rise of Chinese workers in the Philippines to check whether the foreigners are taking over jobs that could have been for Filipinos.

• Senators express concern over foreign workers in PH

Last Tuesday, the Bureau of Immigration arrested more than 200 foreign nationals in a raid of a network technology company in Makati City.

The BI's Intelligence Division arrested a total of 553 foreign nationals in 2018, mostly illegal workers.