Rebels using deported OFWs to fan Mindanao revolt — AFP

CAMP AQUINO, Tarlac — Gen. Benjamin Defensor, the Armed Forces chief of staff, admitted that the mass exodus of undocumented overseas Filipino workers in the South, especially in Muslim-dominated areas, poses grave threats to the country’s internal security.

He told mediamen here that Islamic secessionist groups in Mindanao, including the mainstream communist movement, might take advantage of the sudden unemployment of thousands of Filipinos being deported from Malaysia, as well as the abrupt hardships now being suffered by their respective affected families.

Defensor specifically identified the Muslim rebel groups, Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and a new splinter group of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), as well as the extremist bandit group, Abu Sayyaf, of reportedly fanning the flames of another revolt in Mindanao due to the massive unemployment that resulted from the mass deportation of undocumented Filipino workers from Malaysia.

The government is currently pursuing peace negotiations with the MILF, a breakaway faction of the MNLF that has been waging an Islamic secessionist rebellion in Mindanao.

The MNLF, which has already forged a peace accord with the government under the Ramos administration, suffered late last year a major split after loyalist fighters of jailed former Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) Gov. Nur Misuari staged a revolt.

The Abu Sayyaf is suspected both by Philippine and US authorities of having ties with the international terrorist network of Osama bin Laden.

Defensor said that the military is equally concerned with the threats posed by the MNLF-Misuari faction.

"The Misuari group is one threat we are facing," Defensor said, adding that this faction may be capable of waging another round of secessionist violence in Muslim-dominated areas in the South.

Defensor further explained that the security threat created by the mass deportation of Filipinos from Malaysia cannot be handled by the military alone.

"This problem requires the participation of all concerned government agencies," he said, citing the ARMM and its local government units, the departments of social welfare and development, agriculture, labor and employment and the likes.

At the same time, he pointed out that the mainstream Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), together with its respective armed and political wings, the New People’s Army (NPA) and the National Democratic Front (NDF), could agitate the deported Filipino workers and their families to revolt against the government.

Aside from Malaysia, also now reportedly launching a crackdown on undocumented Filipino migrant workers are other countries such as Italy and Japan, as well as European countries like Greece and France.