Immigration authorities in Iloilo City invited for questioning four Pakistani nationals studying in a local university on suspicion that they might be terrorists, only to give them a clean bill of health later.
"I was alarmed by the report of the police so I conducted my own investigation and it turned out that they are not terrorists," Roberto Canong of the regional immigration office said.
The four Pakistanis were identified as Sha Nawas, Jan Safi Uiiau, Magged Furun and Rahman Safeur, all students of the Central Philippine University in Iloilo City.
Furun hinted that they have no hard feelings against the local immigration authorities over the incident.
He said they did not feel being discriminated "because we feel there is nothing wrong with what we are doing."
"In fact, people in the school are very supportive (of us)," he added.
He admitted that they aroused suspicions when one of them started going out late at night and getting back before dawn.
Furun explained, however, that his friend often spent the night in an Internet cafe to call his family in the United States.
"He used to go out late at night to Internet (cafe) because if it’s night here, it is daytime in the US. It’s the only time he can communicate with his family," Furun said.
"We are okay and we are cleared. It’s natural that people will doubt us especially on circumstances and things happening around," Furun said.
Nevertheless, Iloilo City police director Senior Superintendent Policarpio Segubre said they would not stop monitoring the movements of the Pakistanis.
"I have their names already but I’d rather keep it for myself. In fairness to them, they might not be members of any terrorist group and we might unnecessarily destroy their names," Segubre told The STAR.
He cited local residents for being vigilant and calling the attention of the authorities about suspicious movements of strangers in their city.— Leo Solinap