LETTER TO THE EDITOR - February 10, 2005
References: Connie Bragas-Regalado, Chairperson, 259-1145 & 0927-2157392

With ongoing war in Sulu where will undocumented Pinoy deportees from Malaysia go?

What will happen to those Filipinos who were forced to flee to Malaysia due to the years of strife in Sulu, Tawi-tawi, Basilan, Lanao and other provinces?

When the estimated 500,000 undocumented Filipinos get deported in droves from Malaysia, they will not be able to safely return to their towns of origin. This is what government has continually heaped on the people of Mindanao through the years: no stable jobs, no livelihood opportunities and plenty of carnage.

The ongoing gun battles in Sulu will also affect Filipinos who will be deported from neighboring Malaysia who were also forced to flee incessant wars in Mindanao. This is a bad reality that government itself has created with its extreme neglect towards most of Mindanao.

The Malaysian government is now in the process of cracking down on undocumented migrants in the state of Sabah, where an estimated 170,000 undocumented Filipinos work and reside. The crackdown will go nationwide soon.

This is the situation undocumented Filipino migrants are in for: they can get arrested, detained, fined and whipped six times with a rattan cane before being deported to the Philippines.

When they get back to any of the ports in Zamboanga or Sitangkai, Sulu, the only confirmed government assistance is 10,000 straw hats and portable toilets.

With war raging in Sulu that can spread to other Mindanao provinces, the Pinoy deportees from Malaysia will only go from one hellish situation into a scenario much worse in the homeland. They cannot possibly wait on the high seas for the gun fights to stop before going back to their home towns.

The Macapagal-Arroyo administration must comprehensively address the looming humanitarian crisis of the crackdown on undocumented Filipinos in Malaysia and the monumental problems that will surely arise with the ongoing war in Sulu.

This administration will be the only entity to blame for the decades-long neglect to our undocumented compatriots in Malaysia and the wars that erupt in their hometowns time and again across Mindanao. #