Manila sends team to Malaysia to defuse tension

The Philippines' Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) has sent a consular delegation to Malaysia in a bid to defuse tension between the neighbouring states as allegations of maltreatment of deported Filipinos enraged members of the Senate in Manila.

The consular team will have the task of investigating allegations that Filipino illegal immigrants in Malaysia are being maltreated there.

"We want to rely on our own official report and not just rely solely on allegations of those deported. We are a responsible state dealing with a friendly country and we have to be guided by the official reports from the Philippine embassy and the consular team we sent to Malaysia," DFA Secretary Blas Ople said yesterday.

Accounts from both Philippine military officials and Filipinos deported from Malaysia themselves of the hardships they encountered as Malaysian authorities intensified their crackdown on illegal immigrants touched the sensibilities of politicians in Manila.

Senate president Franklin Drilon and senate majority leader Loren Legarda Leviste said the government, through the DFA, should initiate the move to keep Malaysians from doing the same thing all over again when deporting aliens.

Earlier, military officials in southern Philippines reported rescuing 122 Filipinos who had been deported, about half of whom were children, aboard a fishing vessel that can only accommodate 30.

They told reporters in southern Philippines' Zamboanga City that Malaysian authorities had rounded them up using hound dogs before cramming them into the fishing boat using what they described as "hot poker rods".

The deportation of the Filipinos occurred as Malaysia imposed tighter laws against illegal immigrants to safeguard its borders against extremist elements from southern Philippines and Indonesia.

An estimated 500,000 Filipinos, mostly Muslims from southern Philippines, are staying in Malaysia's north-western Sabah state and some had been illegally working there for more than 10 years.

"This is not the proper way to treat human beings, even if they are overstaying aliens. As civilised nations, we are obliged by international standards on human rights to respect the dignity of individuals. As a friendly neighbour, we deserve no less from the Malaysian government," Drilon noted.

"The way our countrymen were treated was an affront to our nation. Even prisoners of war get better treatment," the senator added.

Legarda stated: "This is a most cruel act by a supposed friendly country. Being overloaded, the rickety boat ferrying those deported back to the Philippines could have cost their lives, when their only desire was to eke out a living."

However, a preliminary report on the issue by Foreign Affairs Undersecretary for migrant affairs, Jose Brillantes, differed from the account of those deported.

The reports said that contrary to allegations by those deported that they were "prodded" into the boat, MV Jamilla, with hot poker rods, the Filipinos left Malaysia on their own.