DFA: Pinoys in Belgium invited for questioning

While admitting that Belgian police have invited a number of Filipinos for "routine questioning" the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) denied yesterday reports that 30 of them, including "mothers and their children were rounded up in dawn raids" and thrown in dingy jail cells, and denied food and water for hours.

At a press conference yesterday the militant group Migrante International, which released the report Tuesday, said a three-year-old child was one of those detained and maltreated by Belgian authorities.

Quoting Philippine Embassy officials in Brussels, DFA spokesman Victoriano Lecaros said Belgian officials have assured that Filipinos were not being singled out and that the operation was a "routine check" of all foreigners in that country.

The Filipinos, whose number has not yet been confirmed by the Philippine Embassy in Brussels, were immediately released after questioning and were not maltreated nor taken to the police station in handcuffs, he added.

The DFA said Filipino nationals abroad should expect increased police and immigrations scrutiny following the US attacks.

Negros Occidental Rep. J. Apolinario Lozada called on the government to file a formal complaint with the Belgian Embassy in Manila to protest the "unfair and inhumane" detention and questioning of the Filipinos.

Lozada said the fact that some Filipino Muslims have been linked with terrorist leader Osama bin Laden does not justify the rounding up of Filipinos.

"But they should not treat all Filipinos as members of this notorious group (of Bin Laden)," he said.

Leo Legaspi, head of Migrante International, told reporters yesterday seven children were detained along with their parents for eight to 12 hours without food and water after being taken from their homes between 5 and 6 a.m. last Sept. 20. – Aurea Calica, Jess Diaz, Sandy Araneta