Duterte weighs in on Afghan refugee issue

MANILA, Philippines — Granting the US its request to have thousands of Afghans stay temporarily in the Philippines while their US immigration visas are being processed may lead to a “warp,” according to former president Rodrigo Duterte.

“I would make a bold prediction. That would cause a kusot, a warp maybe, something there,” Duterte said in an SMNI program aired yesterday. He did not give details.

He made the observation days after his daughter, Vice President Sara Duterte, voiced opposition to the US request.

“And I do not know, I know my daughter better, you know the way Inday thinks and reacts,” the former president said, referring to his daughter by her nickname.

The Vice President – President Marcos’ running mate in the 2022 polls – cited security threats and possible violations of Philippine sovereignty in objecting to Washington’s request for Manila to temporarily house 50,000 Afghans who were employees of the US in their country before the Taliban takeover.

The request is now under review, according to the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA).

The elder Duterte said he was not for a total ban on Afghans but stressed a standard should be set to ensure that Filipinos are safeguarded.

“What I want is a standard set in the highest form, in the levels of national security that we are really protected as a people. For Inday, there is none. It’s absolute,” Duterte said.

“For me, because we are members of the United Nations, and we believe there are refugees in our generation and some other generations like the Russians. We accepted them,” he added.

The DFA previously said the Afghan nationals covered by the request are not refugees but people “who have worked with the US government and their qualified members.” The Afghans are in the last stages of their US special immigration visa application, the department added.

According to the DFA, the proposal is humanitarian but will not involve permanent admission or hosting of Afghan refugees.

Duterte said his daughter was thinking about national interest when she expressed her view.

“She could, maybe projecting something that things won’t be good for us to be hosting guys from Afghanistan which has been rocked with insurgency problems, particularly terrorism,” he said.

"And there’s no guarantee that it is America who (is) now vetting and asking to be accepted is the correct, unsure excuse in the matter of waiving our right against the entry of (Afghan) nationals.”

DFA Secretary Enrique Manalo told senators recently that the Philippines received the request from the US last October.

He gave assurance that the Afghans would be subjected to “rigorous security vetting and background checks.”

For an official of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP), allowing Afghan refugees to stay in the country temporarily is an act of charity and compassion.

CBCP-Episcopal Commission on Migrants and Itinerant People (ECMI) vice chairman Bataan Bishop Ruperto Santos said yesterday the Philippines, being a predominantly Catholic country, should welcome the Afghans who had fled their country to escape the Taliban.

“Not only as our commitment as United Nations signatory to help and accommodate migrants and refugees, but much more as a Catholic country it is our acts of charity and compassion to assist and to welcome them,” Santos said.

The country has international obligations to accept refugees under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the 1951 Refugee Convention and its 1967 Protocol and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

He added that accommodating the Afghan refugees is in accordance with the Lord’s teachings about welcoming strangers. — Evelyn Macairan