Malacanang said on Thursday it welcomes a move to investigate the influx of Chinese nationals in the country.

In a televised press briefing in Bohol province, Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said President Rodrigo Duterte respects the power of the Senate to conduct an investigation in aid of legislation about what opposition Senator Francis Pangilinan called as seeming "orchestrated soft invasion" by the Chinese in the Philippines.

"So, that's welcome," he said.

According to Pangilinan, some four million Chinese nationals from mainland China have arrived in the country since 2017.

He said the massive arrival of the Chinese in the country is alarming amid the territorial dispute between Manila and Beijing in the West Philippine Sea,

In a recent hearing on the proposed budget for 2021 by the Department of Tourism, the Philippine Retirement Authority disclosed that most of the retirees, including those at least 35 years old, in the country are Chinese.

Pangilinan has filed a resolution, calling for an investigation on the continuous arrival of the Chinese nationals in the country. Celerina Monte/DMS