RP seeks humane treatment of deportees

No more "Con-Air" type deportations, please.

This was the request put forward yesterday by President Arroyo to US Secretary of State Colin Powell regarding the treatment of Filipino deportees.

The President, a confessed movie buff, compared the recent deportation of 65 illegal Filipino immigrants to the American movie "Con-Air" starring Nicolas Cage. In "Con-Air," paroled prisoners were bound hand and foot in handcuffs and shackles and transported with hardened, dangerous criminals on a chartered flight.

Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye said the President compared the treatment of convicts in the movie with the manner in which the 65 Filipino deportees were treated by US immigration officials when they were deported to the Philippines via a chartered plane in which they were kept in handcuffs until they got to the tarmac of the Diosdado Macapagal International Airport (DMIA) at Clark Field in Pampanga.

Bunye was one of the Cabinet officials present at the one-hour expanded meeting between the Chief Executive and Powell at Malacañang. Powell was accompanied by an official seven-man delegation.

The plight of Filipino deportees was one of the priority items on the President’s list of talking points with Powell, as well as other irritants in bilateral relations between the US and the Philippines.

"The President appealed for the humane treatment of deported Filipinos and she said she did not want a repeat of the ‘Con-Air’ type treatment where Filipino (deportees) were handcuffed. (The President also said) they (Filipino deportees) should be put aboard regular commercial flights," Bunye said.

"At the same time, the President expressed hope that amnesty will be granted to over-staying Filipinos," Bunye added, "especially if amnesty has been granted to any other groups."

Powell responded to the President’s concern over the treatment of Filipino deportees by promising to take up the latest deportation incident with the US government agencies concerned when he returns to Washington.

"We understand that this is a sensitive issue for the Filipino people. I will go back with the message for my colleagues in the departments of the US government that worry about this issue," Powell said before local and foreign journalists who attended the press briefing that followed his meeting with Mrs. Arroyo.

"Even though we must follow our own laws with respect to deportations and that deportations must occur, we have to do it in a way that is dignified and is sensitive to the feelings of the people being deported as well as sensitive to the feelings of the Filipino people," Powell said.

Likewise, Bunye said, the Chief Executive lobbied for the "front loading" of the matter of the US government’s releasing long-delayed benefits to Filipino veterans of World War II who fought as allies beside American soldiers during the War in the Pacific.

She has asked Powell to facilitate the release of benefits as approved by the US Congress to these Filipino war veterans, who are already in the "twilight years" of their lives.

Bunye said Mrs. Arroyo also asked Powell to lift the US State Department travel advisory cautioning Americans from traveling to the Philippines, "because China has already lifted (its) travel advisory on the Philippines, Japan has modified its advisory and there have been substantial improvements in our peace and order situation."

The President also informed Powell that Tourism Secretary Richard Gordon is also preparing a "special package" for American World War II veterans who wish to visit the Philippines on the anniversary of the US landing in Leyte this October.

"It would be ironic if they (American World War II veterans who helped defend the Philippines during the War in the Pacific) could not visit (the Philippines) because of this travel advisory," Bunye added.

He also quoted Powell’s response to the President on the matter: "My bias has always been in favor of lifting (the travel advisory)."

According to Bunye, the President also brought up other pressing issues that require further clarification: care for the Amerasian children and the clearing up of "toxic waste" that were the dual legacy of the former US bases in Clark Field, Pampanga and Subic in Zambales.