| Letter
to the Editor - February 5, 2005
References: Connie Bragas-Regalado, Chairperson,
259-1145 & 0927-2157392
Vince Borneo, Information Officer, 0927-7968198
Pres. Macapagal-Arroyo refuses to use all means to stop the Malaysian
crackdown on undocumented Filipinos
We are aghast
at the moves that the Macapagal-Arroyo administration is taking
in the upcoming humanitarian crisis with the impending crackdown
on undocumented migrants in neighboring Malaysia.
Pres. Gloria
Macapagal-Arroyo seems to be happy with the extension of the amnesty
period given by the Badawi government. But we reiterate that this
not even a palliative to the crisis facing the Philippine government
on the estimated 500,000 undocumented Filipinos up for inhumane
deportation in Malaysia. It will merely move the date of the brutal
crackdown on undocumented migrants back by a few days.
Philippine
labor and foreign affairs officials in have already admitted that
"it is impossible for the government to handle the situation
if the 500,000 undocumented Filipinos in the Malaysia - of which
170,000 are in Sabah - are deported and made to return to the Philippines
almost at once. Government should instead initiate and exhaust all
diplomatic means to prevent human rights violations against undocumented
Filipinos in Malaysia.
The crackdown
will seek out undocumented migrants who will be subjected to jail
time and six rattan cane whips before they are deported. The Malaysian
government has given partial police power to the 560,000-strong
Peoples' Volunteer Corps that will be rewarded 100 ringgits (P15,000)
per undocumented migrant arrested.
Mahadi Arshad, director-general of the People's Volunteer Corps
was quoted by Agence France-Presse in Malaysia as "awaiting
the green light to launch the nationwide crackdown."
The Philippine
government should not allow the use of torture, detention in squalid
cells and camps, and the ill-provision of medical and nutritional
attention to undocumented migrants that are part and parcel of the
Malaysian government's spotty human rights record.
Migrants are human beings, not animals. We call on the Malaysian
government to stop the crackdown and respect the human rights of
undocumented migrants in Malaysia.
Also, the
Macapagal-Arroyo government must take appropriate policy and practical
measures to attend to the upcoming crackdown that will victimize
hundreds of thousands of undocumented Filipinos in the plantations,
construction, entertainment and restaurant industries. #
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