The government is mulling a crackdown on some 12,000 undocumented Indonesian nationals staying permanently in the Philippines, specifically in Mindanao.
Malacañang has directed the Bureau of Immigration to submit an updated report on illegal entrants in the aftermath of the recent arrest of four suspected Indonesians implicated in the bomb blast last April 21 of the Fitmart Shopping Center in General Santos City, leaving at least 15 people dead and over 60 others wounded.
Government efforts to deport the undocumented Indonesians were stalled after the Indonesian Embassy protested and raised some issues including resettlement problems and the cost of repatriation.
However, Manila is also eyeing two other options to resolve the problem –naturalize and document the illegal Indonesian immigrants.
Meanwhile, the Indonesian Embassy has started issuing identification cards to illegal entrants pursuant to an earlier agreement to deport them.
But the deportation program never took off for lack of funding and a resettlement site in Indonesia. Both governments claimed they do not have the money to finance the mass deportation.
Immigration authorities said the Indonesians began entering the Philippines through the southern backdoor starting in the early 1980s.
Most of them were fishermen and barter traders who came here aboard fishing boats, and opted to stay after they found viable sources of livelihood in the South.
The intelligence community believed that Indonesian terrorists linked to the al-Qaeda network of Osama bin Laden were getting support from some of their colleagues who merged with the illegal entrants.
Two Filipinos arrested earlier in connection with the Fitmart bombing tagged Indonesian Uskar Makawata, who was arrested in Barangay Tambles in General Santos City last Sept. 14, as the mastermind of the bomb attack.
Another Indonesian identified as Mohammad Sala has been tagged as the owner of a pump boat being used by Makawata to transport Indonesian terrorists to General Santos.
A raid on Sala’s house resulted in the arrest of three suspected Indonesian terrorists and the confiscation of explosive materials and guns.
The Philippine government has also raised a howl of protest over the mass deportation of thousands of undocumented Filipino migrants, mostly Muslims from Mindanao, in Malaysia. — Rey Arquiza