| Letter
to the Editor - April 16, 2005
References: Connie Bragas-Regalado, Chairperson
Contact Numbers: 415-1924 and 0927-2157392
Stop
branding Muslim OFWs as terrorists!
MIGRANTE
views the Department of Justice (DOJ) memorandum issued by Sec.
Raul Gonzalez last March 30 is clearly a baseless, highly irrational,
racist and anti-OFW order.
The said
memo directs Bureau of Immigration and Deportation (BID) and National
Bureau of Investigation (NBI) officials to monitor the entry of
overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) coming from the Middle East, particularly
Saudi Arabia and Pakistan.
The Malacanang-mandated
memo specifically directed the said agencies to look for students
who had studied in various Islamic schools in Pakistan and to watch
OFWs who converted to Islam saying that they are "contaminated
by the terrorist mentality."
This is
practically branding all OFWs who believe in Islam as potential
terrorists.
The Department
of Foreign Affairs has even tried to justify and cover up this DOJ
memo. In an April 8 diplomatic note to the Royal Saudi embassy in
Manila, Foreign Affairs chief Alberto Romulo said "that there
are no documented cases of Filipinos being recruited in Saudi Arabia
to commit terrorist activities in the Philippines."
But this
same diplomatic note revealed the current administration's deceitful
stand towards Muslim OFWs. Sec. Romulo formally conveyed to the
Saudi embassy that this issue was not on the agenda of the March
29 meeting of the National Security Council; that this matter was
raised by a participant as a personal opinion; that no concrete
evidence was raised in the context of a broad discussion on security
issues; and there was no mention of any country. But this statement
did not deny the existence of the DOJ directive issued on the next
day.
The DOJ
for its part has defended its memo as "necessary because intelligence
reports show that some of the so-called Balik-Islams (Muslim converts)
became Muslim extremists and terrorists when they returned to the
Philippines."
The said order is tantamount to a demented witchhunt on the very
people who government always claims to be the country's 'new economic
heroes.' This is the Macapagal-Arroyo administration's local imitation
of the illogical and baseless strides of the United States government
towards Muslims and other nationalities. President Macapagal-Arroyo
must speak up and immediately scrap the DOJ order. #
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