Arroyo welcomes Filipino deportees

President Gloria Arroyo yesterday visited the southern outpost of Tawi-Tawi to personally observe the condition of Filipinos deported from Malaysia as a fresh batch of 1,251 arrived on a naval ship.

Tensions between the neighbouring states continue as Manila accused Kuala Lumpur of maltreating arrested Philippine nationals as Malaysia carries out its crack-down on illegally staying foreigners, mainly in its eastern Sabah state.

Officials in Tawi-Tawi said most of those ferried by the navy ship, BRP Dagupan City, were suffering from malnutrition.

Many of those deported were rounded up in Sabah's Tawau and Sandakan districts after they failed to show travel documents or identification certificates issued by the government.

The new arrivals are expected to further swell the numbers of those staying at holding facilities at the two Philippine ports of entry in Tawi-Tawi's Bongao port and in Zamboanga City.

Arroyo flew to Tawi Tawi to check the distribution of rice and medicine to the deportees.

She said she plans to ask former Philippine president Fidel Ramos to meet Mahathir and other Malaysian officials to discuss complaints by the illegal Filipino migrants and to make sure the deportations would be "much, much smoother".

Arroyo also ordered officials to investigate the proliferation of fake Philippine passports that caused the eviction of many Filipinos from Malaysia.

Meanwhile, demonstrators burned Malaysia's flag and portraits of Prime Minister Mahathir Mohammed in small but raucous protests yesterday in Manila.

About 50 labourers, protesting outside the Malaysian Embassy, condemned Malaysia's alleged mistreatment of Filipinos and President Arroyo for failing to protect Filipino workers.

Last week, 1,525 illegal Filipino immigrants were also deported from Sandakan, said Commodore Ernesto de Leon, who was in Tawi-Tawi to meet the new batch.

Meanwhile, Parisha Taradji, regional director, Department of Social Welfare and Development, clarified reports that 13 Filipino children had died either during detention in Malaysia or during the sea voyage from Sandakan to Tawi-Tawi last week.

Taradji said that only three infants died during the last two weeks from among those deported."The 13 children reported were the total number of child fatalities among the deportees since January," she said.

Apart from the ships that the Philippines had sent to fetch its nationals from Malaysia, illegally staying Filipinos there had also been using chartered sea vessels, most often small fishing boats crammed with passengers beyond the number which can be safely carried.

Zamboanga City officials led by their mayor, Maria Clara Lobregat, had earlier expressed apprehensions over the possible social problems caused by the unexpected influx of deported Filipinos, such as increase in criminality and unemployment.

Alleged reports of maltreatment by those deported has inflamed sentiments in Manila, prompting officials to issue a diplomatic protest against Malaysia and calls to revive the Philippine claim to Sabah before the international court.