Illegal Chinese immigrant workers are the bane of the Philippine economy, but please handle them with kid gloves. That’s the mixed messaging coming from the Philippines government, as President Rodrigo Duterte recently discouraged deporting Chinese workers.

Local media reports Duterte commented on the issue on Saturday. “Allow the Chinese here to work. Let them,” he said, after translation. “We have 300,000 Filipinos in China. That’s why I can’t tell them to leave, deport them. What if they make the 300,000 Filipinos there leave?”

These remarks come just days after a task force led by the Bureau of Immigration (BI) arrested 276 foreigners in a raid on an online gambling operation. The operator raided, Manbet, was servicing the UK and China, and so many of the arrested individuals were likely of Chinese origin.

Duterte’s comments add more confusion to the current stance of the Philippines government. As mid-term elections approach in the country, many aspiring senators have criticized the number of undocumented workers in the country. The Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) have also stepped up their requirements to discourage companies from hiring undocumented workers.