More deportees from Sabah expected

The Department of Social Welfare and Development is bracing for the arrival of 936 more deportees from Malaysia today in the five deportee processing centers in Bongao, Tawi-Tawi and Zamboanga City, DSWD Secretary Corazon Soliman said yesterday.

Soliman said the five processing centers have been cleared of earlier batches of deportees from Sabah who arrived in droves after the Malaysian government began cracking down on illegal migrants last month.

She said the processing centers are ready to accommodate the 936 expected deportees and that doctors and social workers would be on hand to greet them upon arrival, which was expected to be late last night or early this morning.

Deportees disembarking from the Philippine Navy and Coast Guard ships BRP San Juan and BRP Bacolod will get a medical check-up before they return to their respective hometowns or places of origin in the Phi-lippines, Soliman said.

Citing government figures, Soliman said there are still about 100 Filipinos in deportee holding centers in Sabah. Another 80,000 to 100,000 undocumented Filipinos are believed to be staying in Sabah and hiding from Malaysian authorities, she said.

Personnel of the DSWD and the Department of Foreign Affairs are in Sabah to track down the illegal migrant Filipinos. The DSWD and DFA personnel are undertaking a campaign to inform the Filipino illegals of procedures to legitimize their stay in Malaysia.

Soliman said the Filipino illegals also have the option of returning to the Philippines voluntarily and securing the papers necessary for a legal stay in Malaysia while in their homeland.

It was learned that the DSWD has some P10 million in cash and kind on hand for use in assisting the latest batch of deportees who will arrive in the DSWD deportee processing centers.

These funds and products were gathered from Filipino individuals and companies who sent donations to the "Pagbalik: Tulong" telethon aired on major Philippine broadcast stations a few days ago.

Soliman said the DSWD has millions of pesos worth of sayote, potatoes and other vegetables donated by residents of Trinidad, Benguet and shipped to Bongao for free by Cebu Pacific airlines to feed incoming deportees.

While feeding and attending to the deportees while they are in the processing centers in Bongao and Zamboanga City does not pose a problem for the DSWD, other difficulties face the returning Filipinos.

Soliman said the deportees’ reintegration into their respective communities is a major concern of the government.

To encourage the acceptance of deportees in their hometowns and places of origin, the DSWD will provide these communities with livelihood assistance so the residents in these communities will be capable of earning a living without depending on their local government units for dole-outs.

Despite all the groundwork for the reintegration of Sabah deportees into the mainstream of Philippine society, Soliman said, the exodus back to Sabah of Filipinos now armed with the proper documents for a legal stay in the Malaysian state began almost immediately after the deportees got the papers needed for their return to Malaysia.