GMA says 40,000 deportees may now return to Sabah

President Arroyo said yesterday up to 40,000 Filipinos who had earlier been deported from Sabah can now return to their former jobs after they have been issued Philippine passports and other proper travel documents to legalize their stay there.

President Arroyo made this announcement in her extemporaneous remarks after she formally received at Malacañang samples of two truckloads of relief goods donated by 22 Chinese schools in the country, as well the Operation Brotherhood of the Chinese-Filipino Business Club (CFBC).

President Arroyo said these donations would be distributed to the families of hundreds of Filipino deportees shipped back from Sabah who are staying at the processing centers in Bongao, Tawi-Tawi and at Zamboanga City.

She expressed satisfaction that the problems related to the influx of undocumented Filipinos from Sabah have somehow dissipated after Malaysian Prime Minister Mohammad Mahathir, upon her representations, imposed a "moratorium" on arrest and detention of undocumented aliens in Sabah.

As this developed, The STAR obtained yesterday a copy of Administrative Order No. 40 (AO) issued by President Arroyo last Oct. 1, which created a 10-man special task force "Pagbabalik Tulong" to address the problems posed by the deportation of undocumented Filipinos from Sabah.

The President designated presidential adviser on Muslim communities Nur Jaafar to head this special task force, which also included the heads of eight departments and of concerned local government units.

President Arroyo, who has publicly frowned upon creating task forces which she criticized as just ad hoc bodies with no accountabilities, justified her issuance of AO 40.