ARMM: Deportations to worsen poverty, security situation

Officials of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) expressed serious concern yesterday that the mass deportation of illegal Filipino migrants in Malaysia would worsen the poverty situation and security problems.

Ninety percent of the deportees were from the ARMM provinces of Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi which were in the list of the country’s poorest areas and generally considered as hotbed of Muslim secessionist rebellion and Islamist fundamentalism.

Concerned authorities said the deportation came at a time when foreign donors and international humanitarian organizations who came to the region in 1996 to help implement a reintegration program for former Muslim rebels have already left after completing their mission.

ARMM executive secretary Nabil Tan appealed for help anew from these benefactors.

He said they were particularly calling on the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) which helped broker the 1996 peace treaty between the government and the Moro National Liberation Front.

Malaysia, a member of the OIC, is part of the Ministerial Committee of Eight that monitors the implementation of the peace accord.

The eight countries composing the committee included Libya and Saudi Arabia.

Although Tan recognizes President Arroyo’s concern for the plight of the deportees, numbering tens of thousands, he said the social and economic problems confronting the ARMM may reach catastrophic proportions.

"This is why we are calling on foreign donors and international humanitarian outfits to help the ARMM government address this concern. The regional government will face so many constraints in providing these deportees with shelters and livelihood assistance," Tan said.

He pointed out that most of the deportees were forced to migrate to the Malaysian state of Sabah due to the secessionist war in Mindanao during the 70s and early 80s.

"Most of them have nowhere to return to," Tan said.

Because of the poor economic conditions in the ARMM which also included the provinces of Maguindanao and Lanao del Sur and Marawi City, the officials said the deportees would have an extremely difficult time looking for jobs.

A study by the newly created Regional Business Council showed that 20 percent of the region’s local traders have been pulling out from the region over the past years due to the peace and order problem.

ARMM police officials also feared a likely rise in criminality in the areas where the deportees would settle as an offshoot of dire poverty. – John Unson