400,000 Pinoys still to be deported?

A crisis looms if the Philippines fails to convince Malaysia to stop the deportation of up to 400,000 Filipinos in Sabah alone, an official of the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said yesterday.

A report from the Philippine Embassy in Kuala Lumpur revealed that Malaysian employers were turning over their illegal Filipino migrant workers to avoid government penalties, said the official who requested anonymity.

The DFA source said only about 80,000 of about 500,000 undocumented Filipinos in Sabah took advantage of the amnesty granted by Malaysian authorities. The DFA has said that 116,000 of these undocumented workers had already been given regular status in 1997.

Foreign Affairs Secretary Blas Ople was hopping from one crisis committee meeting to another yesterday. He had to tackle the deportation of Filipinos in Sabah and the contingency plan for the 1.5 million Filipinos in the Middle East should the United States attack Iraq.

Meanwhile, the chief of an official mission which left yesterday for Sabah said Manila was seeking a "breathing spell" to enable officials to set up a better system to repatriate Filipinos facing deportation from the eastern Malaysian state.

Nur Jaafar, presidential adviser on Mindanao affairs, said, "We would appeal to the authorities there to be lenient to allow us a breathing spell through our diplomatic channels to negotiate for a better procedure in transporting our Filipino citizens who are to be deported."

Jaafar said the mission was not empowered to conduct talks related to the Philippine claim on Sabah. Several quarters had suggested the revival of the Philippine claim on the island.

On Saturday, President Arroyo warned against "grandstanding or diplomatic adventurism" in dealing with Malaysia in the wake of a crackdown in Sabah.

Jaafar and his members met with Mrs. Arroyo at Malacañang before flying to Sabah. The President ordered the mission to "negotiate for better procedures" in the mass repatriation of undocumented Filipinos, which has spawned an emotional outburst in the country.

At the Ninoy Aquino International Airport, Jaafar told reporters that his mission would seek the simplification of deportation process to reduce the burden of deportees.

"We will ask for greater leniency, and if possible, to grant (us) sufficient time for the registration and profiling of undocumented Filipinos," he said.

Jaafar said he would ask Malaysian authorities for an extension of the Malaysian amnesty law.

The mission would propose the setting up of processing centers in different points in Sabah to ease the difficulties of caring for the deportees, he said. The areas being considered were Kota Kinabalu to serve deportees from the Malaysian Peninsula, Sandakan for those coming from the eastern part of Malaysia, and Semporna for those coming from Tawao.

Jaafar said the mission would also ask Sabah authorities to allow contingent teams that will include doctors, nurses and social workers to oversee the plight of the deportees.

The mission was dispatched to look into the conditions of Filipinos being detained in Sandakan, Kota Kinabalu and Tawao following Malaysia’s crackdown on illegals. Its dispatch was Mrs. Arroyo’s apparent response to Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad’s call on Manila to probe allegations of inhumane treatment and deaths of infants during the crackdown in Sabah.

Other members of the Jaafar mission are Foreign Affairs Undersecretary Arthur Brion, Labor and Employment Undersecretary Lucy Lazo, Health Undersecretary Mila Fernandez, Undersecretary Abraham Purugganan of the Office of the Presidential Adviser on Special Concerns, Social Welfare and Development Director for Western Mindanao Parisya Taradji, lawyer Abdel Gani Papua of the Office of Muslim Affairs, Rey Milan of the Office of the Presidential Adviser for Regional Development and Col. Francisco Gudana of the defense department.

"The purpose of the team in going there is to find out the actual condition of Filipino deportees or repatriates being confined at these various holding centers," Jaafar said.

Malaysia accommodated on Saturday a Philippine request to suspend temporarily the arrest and deportation of Filipinos in Sabah after Mrs. Arroyo telephoned Mahathir.

Last batch

Social Work and Development Secretary Corazon Soliman, who attended the Malacañang meeting, said the "last batch" of about 500 deportees from Sabah was expected to arrive in Bongao, Tawi-Tawi reception center.

Soliman said a boat in Sandakan was preparing to leave to pick up the "last batch" of deportees. Deportation is expected to resume until the Jaafar mission completes its work.

Asked pointedly what the mission would do if it finds out that the Filipinos were maltreated, Jaafar said, "We have to report to the President, and to out diplomatic channels, (so that) necessary remedial measures can be undertaken."

In Nueva Ecija, where she flew after meeting with the Jaafar mission, Mrs. Arroyo said the deportees arriving in the country were "weak, no lives to go back to, no homes to go to, no jobs."

She renewed calls on Filipinos to donate food, clothing, medicine and cash to help the deportees.

The President cited the intention of WG&A to send ships while Cebu Pacific said it was willing to send airplanes, while Mead Johnson offered milk and that Metrobank was sending P2 million in cash donation.

"One child who celebrated her birthday and had a photo-opportunity with me yesterday at Malacañang, gave me cash birthday gifts she received to be given to refugees," she said.

"The government is doing everything to solve (the deportees problem), but we can’t do it alone before it worsens and turns into a more serious situation. Let’s work together to face this and end it," she said.

Mrs. Arroyo would convene a meeting on the Sabah issue with senators and congressmen as soon as congressional session adjourns this week, Presidential Legislative Liaison Office Secretary Gabriel Claudio told The STAR.

Claudio said the meeting would be scheduled either Friday or Saturday, with DFA and Department of Labor and Employment officials briefing them.

Burning the flag

In Davao City, militant groups burned yesterday a Malaysian flag in front of the Malaysian consulate to protest the deportation of Filipinos in Sabah

However, protesters were dismayed because the consulate was closed.

Malaysia has already expelled about 70,000 undocumented Filipinos in recent months. On Aug. 27, the Philippines strongly protested against the harsh treatment of the deportees, many of them allegedly suffered in detention centers in Sabah.

There were reports of complaints by deportees that their homes were burned by Malaysians to force them to leave.

Philippine government officials said the alleged harsh conditions in detention centers in Sabah had led to the deaths of three Filipino children from malnutrition and dehydration.

Mahathir has denied that workers were being mistreated.

Philippine diplomat Giovanni Palec told Reuters by telephone from Sabah that Jaafar’s team would visit Malaysia’s detention centers in Sabah and hoped to travel to Kuala Lumpur later in the week for a meeting with Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, who is also in charge of home affairs.

Allegations of mistreatment of Filipino illegals have prompted calls from some lawmakers for the government to revive the Philippines’ long dormant territorial claim to Sabah.

The island was federated into Malaysia in 1963 over objections from the Philippines, which claims the territory has historically belonged to the Filipino sultanate of Sulu.

Mrs. Arroyo is to consult members of Congress this week to seek a unified stand on reviving the 40-year-old territorial claim. She has personally distanced herself from the issue of resurrecting the claim, saying "diplomatic adventurism" was not the way to resolve problems between neighbors.

The claim has been a thorn for years in the bilateral relations. In the 1980s, the Philippines decided to put it in the backburner, citing the need to preserve harmony within the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), to which the two countries belong.

Meanwhile, Director General Dante Liban, of the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority, said they have deployed a special team to provide training assistance to Filipinos in Sabah while awaiting deportation.

"The team would upgrade the skills of the Filipino migrants who have entered Malaysia through the so-called southern backdoor through training and help in the certification needed for them to work legally abroad," Liban said.

The Task Force Detainees of the Philippines said in a statement that "Mindanao needs genuine attention from the national government for economic development and not mere industrial enclaves where foreigners invest and enjoy perks such as tax holidays and cheap labor."

Honasan seeks sanctions vs KL

In a related development, Sen. Gregorio Honasan urged Mrs. Arroyo to call for an emergency meeting of ASEAN to consider sanctions against Malaysia, including expulsion from the group because of its "inhumane treatment" of workers from neighboring countries.

Senate Majority Leader Loren Legarda cautioned yesterday against saber-rattling in dealing with the Sabah issue and called for sobriety in pursuit of national interest without antagonizing Malaysia.

Sen. Ramon Magsaysay Jr. said, "We should set aside the Sabah claim while we resolve the ill-treatment of Filipinos in Malaysia."

Sen. Manuel Villar said that he was not raring for a fight over Sabah, but wants to show the world that Filipinos were prepared to protect their dignity.

Rep. Imee Marcos introduced a resolution where she said "Sabah and the islands north of Borneo are defined as part of the national territory and that the Philippines has the historic right or legal title."

She said the Philippines "should now be apt to pursue an independent suit squarely on the Sabah claim."

Rep. Josephine Ramirez-Sato deplored Malaysia’s "shabby and inhumane treatment" of Filipino deportees even as she called on Filipinos to temper their emotions in seeking to revive the Sabah claim.

"Diplomacy remains to be the wisest move. We cannot afford to sever ties with the Malaysians, much more engage in war," she said in a statement. — With reports from Efren Danao, Edith Regalado, Mayen Jaymalin