Fair treatment asked of Pinoy deportees

President Arroyo formally asked yesterday Malaysian Prime Minister Dr. Mohammad Mahathir for a "humane treatment" of undocumented Filipinos being deported from Sabah back to southern Philippines.

Arroyo coursed through this formal request to visiting Minister Bernard Giluk Dompok, who used to be the chief minister in the state of Sabah but who is now a Minister at the Office of the Prime Minister.

Dompok led yesterday a delegation of Malaysian government officials attending a conference being held at the Asian Development Bank (ADB) in Mandaluyong City. Accompanied by the Malaysian ambassador to the Philippines, the Malaysian officials conferred later with Filipino officials here on matters related to the (BIMP-EAGA) Brunei-Indonesia-Malaysia-Philippines East Asia Growth Area.

The formal request of the President was reiterated to the visiting Malaysian Minister who later had a meeting yesterday at Malacañang with Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) Secretary Patricia Sto. Tomas, Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) Gov. Parouk Hussin, and Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) Undersecretary Tony Rodriguez.

In a press briefing after their meeting at the Palace, Sto. Tomas said President Arroyo took the opportunity to relay this request to Prime Minister Mahathir when the Malaysian Minister paid a courtesy call on her at Malacañang.

"The President took the occasion to express her thanks to the Malaysian government for the assistance in the peace process as well as to ask for assistance for the orderly repatriation of the deportees to our country so that they won’t be coming here in bulks," Sto. Tomas said. "If they come in bulks, this become more difficult for the areas where they land. So we’re trying to ask that the deportees at least come home in batches of about 200 so that it would be easier to document them and to take care of their requirements," she added.

Sto. Tomas particularly expressed the Philippine government’s concern that since Malaysia started its "crackdown" on all illegal foreigners in the Sabah and in other island states, Filipino deportees came in big numbers from 800 to 1,000.

"What we’re trying to do is to make this a little manageable so that particularly women and children are not unduly prejudiced because of so many people being put together in one ship," Sto. Tomas said.

In her talks with the Malaysian Minister, Sto. Tomas said, she has reached a "consensus" on the possible signing of a new labor agreement between the two countries in which both parties have agreed to open three additional sectors where overseas Filipino contract workers (OFWs) would be employed in construction, plantation and manufacturing.

Sto. Tomas cited it used to be that the hiring of OFWs were only limited to the services sector which contributed to the problem of undocumented Filipinos going to Malaysia.

"Hopefully before the end of this month, such agreement is signed between us and the Malaysian authorities," she said. At the same time, she said, the Philippine government would open up a contract processing office in Bongao, Tawi-Tawi and in Zamboanga.

Already, the DOLE Secretary disclosed yesterday "a team of consular officers" in Sabah documenting Filipinos while there are already two teams that went to Bongao and Zamboanga.

On the specific concern of Zamboanga Mayor Ma. Clara Lobregat on possible infiltration of criminal elements with Filipino deportees, Sto. Tomas said the DFA consular officials earlier sent to Sabah have made sure such won’t happen.

"But even before Filipinos are deported back to the Philippines, they (deportees) undergo a check there (in Sabah) that at least determines whether this is in fact a Filipino going home or not," she said.

"The (deportees) are not given passports. They are not given travel documents and when they get back home, there is then the more intensive documentation process and that’s the only time they can get a real honest to goodness passport," she said.