Congressional Internship Program for Young Muslim Leaders (CIPYML) 9 th

cycle
Round Table Discussion
Labor migration: The case of deportees from Malaysia
Mitra Building, House of Representatives, Batasan Hills Quezon City
October 21, 2009 1:00 5:PM
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I.

Persons involved:
a. Implementers:
The Zealot Group
1. Jamairah Macabanding Group leader, Over-all Chairperson
2. Ahmed Deedat Kalbit Committee on Registration & food
3. Mohammad Kahlid Gunting Master of Ceremony
4. Alimama Macabunbun Photo documentation
5. Al-musa G. Tandih Program documentation
b. Guests/Speakers invited
c. Participants from different agencies and organizations of different sectors

II.

Objectives:
a. RTD Objectives:
To update participants of different agencies and different sectors on the plight
of the Filipino Deportees from Malaysia with the help of the invited resource
persons
To gather the concern persons and agencies regarding the issue on labor
migration particularly the so-called Filipino deportees from Malaysia
b. Documentation Objectives: at the end of this documentation the group should be able
to:
Document the entire events most specially the significant point of views
during the discussion proper
Serves as a proof of evidence anytime it will be needed
To be able to assess the performance of the group in any aspects with regards
to the actualization of the Round Table discussion

III.

Flow of the program:

1:00 1:30 Registration by Ahmad Deedat Khalbit
The registration took place during this time. It has been observed that all of
the invited resource speakers including reactors were in attendance. There were 20
males and 41 female who witnessed the RTD. (see the attached attendance sheet
1:30 2:30 RTD proper

The program Proper started with an invocation led by Macabunbun Alimama

followed by the singing of National Anthem led by Al-musa G. Tandih. Everyone
was illuminated by the opening remarks from director Dina Pasagui specifically on
the objectives of the RTD.
Dir. Dina Pasaguis Opening Remarks
Our friends from the POEA, Ideals Incorporated, Center for Migrant
Advocacy Inc, and other cause-oriented groups, fellow servants in the public
sector, ladies and gentlemen, good afternoon.
We are gathered here today to discuss a topic that is very close to
everyones heart and home labor migration. I bet that not one in this room
can claim that he/she does not have a dear one who left the country for a
greener pasture abroad. Indeed overseas employment - which in the past
was thought of as a stop-gap measure - has now claimed at least 10% of our
labour population.
While there are advantages for finding jobs elsewhere in the world,
there are also risks and attendant problems which every Filipino family must
address absentee fathers/mothers, dysfunctional children, cultural
differences, unjust/unfair labour practice and the like.
For this afternoon, our interns have chosen to take up the plight of the
deportees from Malaysia in the hope that this case study will expand their
understanding of migration-related issues and problems to better prepare
them for their future role as policymakers, legislators, advocates, advisers
and executive officers in their respective provinces in the ARMM.
This early, I want to credit the organizers of the Round Table
Discussion for the sleepless nights, the emotionally-charged moments and
adrenaline-exhausting, brain-draining sessions they went through just to be
able put up this RTD activity. As their program supervisor, I have seen how
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each one of them has metamorphosed from an unsightly larva to a beautiful

butterfly.
Lastly, let me thank those who, in one way or the other, manifested
their support to the professional growth and personal development of our
young people from Mindanao. Every participant here present has registered
a vote of confidence on the potential of these young learners today who will
become the leaders of tomorrow.So, in behalf of the House of
Representatives and our partners, Growth with Equity in Mindanao under
USAID and the Mindanao State University, we call this RTD in session. And
may God bless us all!

2:30 3:00 Topic overview through Power point presentation by Mr. Alimama
Macabunbun

Mr. Alimama was task to impart the topic overview through PowerPoint
presentation. He explained each slide of his PowerPoint presentation in relation to
the topic.

ALIMAMA

:
Ladies and gentle men, good afternoon. Before Dir. Deguzman
give his case on the topic of labor migration in Malaysia, let me give
you first the overview of the topic(Then he specified his
acknowledgement to the guest speakers) Thank you for coming.
Historically, Malaysia has always been the heaven for the Filipino
Jobseekers. (Then he went in detailed)

3:00 3:30 Lecture on Filipino deportees from Malaysia

After Mr. Alimama delivered his powerpoint presentation, The

lecture on Filipino deportees
Malaysia by Executive Director Edgardo Ligon took place.

MR.LIGON :
Magandang Hapon po sa ating lahat! Ang laki pala ng pangalan
ko dito (laugh), ( He imparted additional information about the
IDEALS)
:
Initially I wanted to introduce our organization, so our
organization is IDEALS focused on NGO provide legal support for migrant. We

alsodo policy initiatives particularly on the face book project, I dont know if you
have face book, what we want is a picture like illegal recruiters. We are working
with the task force anti-illegal recruiters. We had already identified about 10
illegal recruiters. We had 20 thousand warrant of arrest for illegal recruiters. The
problem isreally we cannot locate who and where, yung illegal recruiter, they
change their names.sso we are trying to categorize illegal recruiter by the number
of victims. Other than that, we were in Sabah Malaysia for 10 days we would like
to share with you some of our observations: we have like around 1 milllion
migrant workers in sabah. Based on our case study, we have about 80 million
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dollars remittances coming from Malaysia alone. This are only coming from the
local channels yung mga remmitances nito not to mention yung mga kapatid natin
na nagpapadala ng 1 thousand, 2 thousand, Maraming mura sa Malaysia mura
yung sabon, mahilig sila sa whitening cream (Laugh!) at tsaka, angat doon yung
corned beef natin na argentinaat tsak blue skies.So we were their, we talk with the
government the partnership that we had is we call this the Out of the box
solutions, but we are just looking for possible models. Although we are a human
rights NGO, We try to look at this issue on the ecomomic rights not on the
economic rights aspect. Mostly of our kababayan go to Malaysia is to seek for a
job. Our initiative we partners with two academic institution WMSU and Ateneo
Research Center. We also partnered with AMIN UNDER CONGRESSMAN
HERNANDEZ AND MALAY MINDANAO FOUNDATION BASED IN CDO and
the oher one is we are also working on the Trade Union so we are trying to build
a ssort of a consortium. ( At this point, he proceeded to the powerpoint
presentation)
:
So, Initially, why we partners with house of representatives, we believe
that congress has the power to regulate the commerce. Yung congress kasi, malaki
talaga ang papel nyan. The congress should really participate on this issue. We
work with Anak Mindanao Party list in the aid of legislation on the Filipino
deportees form Sabah particularly on the construction and agriculture industry
titinginan natin yung class ng Malaysian, they have the Chinese, then Inidian
then Malaysian and the mostly, malaking porsyento ng kanilang working class ay
mga Filipino particularly in the Sabah side. In Kuala Lumpur, if you are a
Malaysian or a Chinese- Malaysian who have a domestic worker who is Filipino
medyo sikat ka. Now we are actually concentrating on Sabah Area.So i said, we
were commission by AMIN to this study.So we are looking at the possible
economic models, so we are looking at the BIMP-EAGA at the economic
partnership agreement that was established in 1994 between the territories of
Mindanao and Palawan, so we are trying to go in to that framework. The
agreement between the provinces of Zamboanga, Basilan, Sulu Basilan and Tawitawi ,so this is more of a sister agreement, so we are trying to see if we can have
this sister agreement between Sabah and Malaysia. Actually Cebu city and
Malaysia is like a sister city, so we would like to bring in more in to that
sisterhood. And we really put in sa economic agreement or anything under this
kind of sisterhood. And then we are working with the Department of Labor
particularly the ILS. So ngayon, mukhang nasa proseso pa sya. And then next is
the private sector agreement between chamber of commerce in Mindanao and
sabah to provide Filipino workers in the construction and agriculture industry so
why choose agriculture and construction industry kasi heto yung demand ng
Malaysia. Relatively,we also supply on the entertainment industry, masakit man
tanggapin, when we were in Labuan halos lahat kasi yun yung parang
entertainment district nila no ang lahat ng mga GRO sa Labuan ay puro
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Filipina. Some of them are voluntary sex workers, siguro for some who would like
to look in to that, magandang area ng stud, nakakalungkot man, that is how they
look at the situation. With the idea of business framework is that Mindanao has
human resources as experienceits easier to go south form south or north di ba?
Kasi experience naman natin yung mga tao it takes 2 days form zamboanga to go
Manila to seek for work where in it will Only take them 12 hours to go to
Sandakan to work. Mindanao has lots of resources, relatively because of the war,
the lack of employment opportunities in that area they would rather go to the part
na mas madaling puntahan mas mura yung. Actually mas mura ang pamasahe, it
will only casue 1,200 Pesos to go over and then nasa Sandakan ka na.(then he
gave a short back ground about Sabah. They will rather hire Filipinos kasi yung
Filipinos hindi daw dumatakbo so when they hire Malaysian maybe after a weeks
or two weeks, nawawala na silaat hindi naman sila pwede mag reklamo kasi
pwede naman mag file ng labor case nad Malaysian unlike Filipino pwede kahit
hindi bayaran. So there were cases where in Filipinos particularly on the
construction workers, a month before the house completed, some employers
report them as illegal migrant so they tend to run away without getting their last
month salary. (Then discussed further about trade union, Filipino migrant,
the problem of undocumented documentation and about Sandakan and
Mindanao through PowerPoint presentation) .
Jalao came from the word outcast. More and more of them would like to be a
citizen. Actually malalaman mo kung dumadami ang Filipinos sa pag dami ng
bigas sa Sandakan. We have this Visa tourist mostly ginagamit ng mga GRO kasi
mas madali. From Manila to Cota Kinabalu it cost only 2,500. Visayan women
find good job sa Malaysia. We were able to meet someone na married to a
member of the parliament.
There are 12,600 deportees, on daily basis an average of 300-500 deportees a
day which is also a problem to Zamboanga City because its eating more of their
local resource. Kinkain nito yung mga social services ng Zamboanga City.
Minsan nagbibigay naman ng pamasahe sa one stop processing center (SPC).
Pumunta doon siguro because of the opportunities na may mga relatives or
friends sila doon and informed them na maraming trabaho which is true but still
its undocumented. Yung pag paaala sa mga kababyan natin na hindi madali
magtrabaho sa Malaysia I think there must be a massive education campaign.
Most Filipinos do not know the requirement of Sabah. Malaki rin ang problema
sa trafficking. ( further explained about the Sabah claim through PowerPoint
presentation)

3:30 4:00 PM Dir. Nimfa De Guzman , POAE came next to deepen the topic:
DIR. DE GUZMAN :
Thank you. Good afternoon our distinguished officials
from the House of representative, our partners in migration development, our
young and vibrant young leaders of Mindanao. In fact, when I came in into the
room, I already smell the vibrant of these young leaders and I would like to
congratulate the house for shepherding this program and hope that more batches
will pushed through so that more and more people from Mindanao will benefit
from this program. So Im glad I was call after Mr. Ed and also the one who gave
our situational earlier Mr. Alimama Macabunbun, because its just confirm the
similarities that we had of that of private sectors as well as the government. As I
started reading ore about the issue, I realized that the problem has touched a big
magnitude and that the government will not be able to solve it alone we need a
cooperation including theinterset and advocacy from our young leader. So, let us
start, This is the geographical location from where the problem emanates
(referring to the PowerPoint presentation. She had shown the Sabah and the
Mindanao Map and had deepened the topic)
:
These are my observation: Vicious cycle of entry, Uncontrollable inflow
and outflow of undocumented Filipinos, People do not recognize the borders,
resource of local and national government are very much strained and cannot
accommodate thousands of Filipinos. (She discussed the topic of sovereignty
issue on Sabah)
:
RPd territorial claim over the Island of Sabah is a political issue which
needs to be resolved (continue the PowerPoint presentation)

4:00 4:30 - Executive Director Ellene Sana, Executive Director, Center for Migrant
Advocacy Philippines was task to give the reaction:

DIR. SANA:
Thank you and good afternoon everyone, I also would like to
thank the organizers of this forum to the organizers specially the
young Muslims.
The medium term responses for example, The fact is the
Filipinos in Sabah are being depressed or their rights are violated by
the Malaysian government. now, one of the recommendations - Can
we have a office in Sabah? To look after the welfare and the response
is that we cannot do that because of this Sabah Issue. Ok, I was
thinking, but the point is we have already hundreds of thousands of
Filipinos and because of that reasoning we are not able to do
something about it. S Ii think it cannot be all the time until the Sabah
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issue is done they cannot be able to solved the issues on Filipinos

deportees in sabah. In fact, some private entities offers to set up an
office there so I think thats the immediately one issue that I would like
to race. We support our ancestors claim of Sabah and they should not
get it that way in terms of being able to provide relief assistance to our
Filipino Kababayan in Sabah. So, that is one immediate
recommendation that perhaps our legislators can think about. Now
another issue was the migrant issue and its because of the extreme
poverty particularly in Mindanao. And in fact, I just came in from
another meeting, the women summit and I was mentioning about
poverty , the regions that has the impoverished women are Mostly in
Mindanao so you have ARMM with the biggest number of women who
are very poor then followed by CARAGA, REGION 12, REGION 10, and
region 9, so all of these are in Mindanao. Again that is one reason why
we have continuous flow of migrant from Mindanao. The continuous
flow of migrants is because people have the opportunity there.
However life is difficult in Sabah, I think most of these documented or
undocumented Filipinos, they are able to find job and even if they had
been detained many times, when you ask them, will you go back to
Sabah the answer is yes. So I think, our own government to stand the
tide of the undocumented Filipinos in that part of Philippines is to
addressed the basic, well this is like a sirang plake yung usapin ng
kahirapan ng mga Filipino ok. Now, the other issue is a.. I got
mentioned this, falsify documents. In zamboanga Office of DFA they
were saying that they process 300 hundreds of passports everyday
and half of these applications are with falsified documents. Some of
this application, same person was applying the one wears a veil and
the other was not wearing a veil but definitely its the one at same
person .Now, what is the situation, right across the DFA office is a
business photo center and everything and you can actually request to
have a birth certificate there. So hindi lang because that the Muslim
people are doing the late birth registration, but the thing is there is a
business legally at that, facilitating the issuance of Birth Certificates.
The other issue is why do people go in Mindanao? Zambianga and Tawi
tawi to go to Sabah and other places because its much easier to go
there. How come nothing is being done about this? How come for the
longest time this is happening? So we are looking at the national
offices but we are also looking at the local group that should be
looking some very definite intervention on the matter. Now I am
looking at Malaysia, what is the policy of Malaysian Government on
migration? nothing!. The government officials of Malaysia had been
very vocal that they dont have the policy to admit migrant workers.
What they are doing at the moment to assess the private sector to
approach them that they are in need of migrant workers because there
is shortage of workers in Malaysia. So a diplomatic approach would be
very good, utilize that BILP-EAGA as propose by our colleague here and
so with ASEAN forum. Things are certainly not going to move very fast
we cannot like overlook this space for engagement. Other
stakeholders, if I may comment for example, its very good that there
was only refer to a one-stop processing center but when you went
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there in Tawi-tawi, nag iisa lang po ang POAE. So how can she deal
with all of these documentation of deportees. May roon time that she
have will to go to that vessel just to make sure have you been
documented? Are you going to Sabah? So she doing it all by herself.
You can come up with a list of programs addressing this issue but
when you try to take a closer on how this programs are being
implemented medyo ma short sayings talaga yung migrant workers.
Its very nice to hear you have the one-stop but literally one person.
Hindi mo nakikita yung ibang mga ahensya much the DFA. I dont
know if is a matter of resources or what but it is the situation yung
usapin ng intervention and the involvement of other stakeholders. On
the matter of a stateless children, again, this is a very big issue there
is estimated 100 thousand stateless Filipino in sabah the reasons is
because Kuala Lumpur is very far from Sabah and they cannot
registered there children. So what can be done? It should be you who
should go there i mean parang madali syang gawin pero bakit hindi
sya nagagawa? Parang its about sending somebody there on a regular
basis to provide the service needed so that they will be able to
register, ngayon lumalake ng yung mga bata stateless parin sia so
parang dapat parang kulang talaga yung political will to do something
about the situation. Sa policy ng crack down of deportation ng
Malaysian government. They come and go kahit wala silang
documents kasi jobs are available for them. For our policy makers,
they should be cognisance of this fact that even if migrant are
undocumented of how they have violated the immigration laws of the
host country, there are still entitled to some basic rights. Yun na lang
po muna salamat po!
4:30 5:30 Open Forum

Asked
by:
NAJIR
Kinatara,
CIPYML
ALUMNUS

Question:

Address
ed to:
DIR.D E
GUZMAN

Despite the provisions

of labor code
concerning illegal
recruitment specifically
article 39 which
provides capital penalty
of life imprisonment to
illegal recruitment
involving economic
sabotage but despite of
provision of Labor
codes, they are still
member of cases of
illegal recruitment as
cited in the opening
prayer there are

Answer:
Actually, the approach to

anti-illegal recruitment, id
that preventive and that
involves education so we
have different partners in
LGU academe, NGO where
we have MOA with themfor
information dissimination to
prevent victimizing by
illegal recruiters. We have
also expanded our
information dissemination
in addition to our website
we have radio program,
Also we Text POAE. So we
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700,000 cases of
Filipino deportees from
other countries. I
believe that there are
problems on
implementations of this
law, so my questrion is
is there any strategy or
steps that has been
taken or will be taken in
support to strengthen
this implementation of
this law? Thank you

CHRIS
LUMIBAO,
Committe
e on
overseas
workers
Affairs

I just like to correct

MONALIZ
A ADAM,
CIPYML-9
INTERN

As you have said

Mindanao has the
highest rate of Women
and children rights
violation, consider that
the present of
militarization, never
ending condition as
young muslim from

are really doing the

preventive approached. And
with regard to Dealing with
illegal recruiters it has been
elevated in to a task force,
task force of anti-illegal
recruitment which is filled
by the vice president, POAE
is the active participants of
that task force. And we offer
legal assistance to victims
of illegal recruitment not
only in at the central office
but also in regional office
we have 15 all over the
country. So these are our
efforts and we really need
the cooperation of all the
stakeholders because it is
out mutual concern to really
prevent the proliferation of
modus operandi of illegal
recruiters.its taskforce- we
offer legal assistance to
those illegal recruitements..
we really need the
cooperation of all the
stakeholders..

the statement that

law on illegal
recruitment is still
the labor code article
39 you mention it is
now a RA8042, It has
been refilled by the
provisions of sec. 6
of RA 8042,
MRS.
ELLENE
SANA

Thank you for that question

but the short answer is that i

dont have the figures but
what i acn say for example
is a the highest proportion
of women migrants is from
Mindanao. The main reason
is economic. So as far as
VOWC victims are

Mindanao Maam, I see

that this condition on
violence of women and
children is one of the
contributory factors in
the increasingly number
of labor migration in
Malaysia . to consider
the highly cultural
sensibility of the
area,due to this the
cultural practices teh
religion, these cases of
VOWC where ironically
treated by means of the
cases is visible the
condition is visible but
then not recognize the
prostitution is there, the
cases of rapes are there
but then it is ironically y
treated . Maam do you
have data on numbers
of women victims of
violence which resulted
them to migrated to
Malaysia, because this
violation is in form of
economic deprivation
not merely physical, so
maam do you have a
records on that?
MR. RENY
KAPARAS
from the
Secretari
at

Honestly Maam , sir

Do you believe that our
claim to Sabah is
legitimate and we can
really claim ?

concerned i dont have the

figures probably the DSWD
or the NCRFW would have

DIR.
DEGUZM
AN

10

We would like to support the

claim reality check I think
there has to be a process of
introspection and
scenarios. I thinh it has to
consensus from the south
particularly the ares that
has, i mean since ang claim
comes form the sultanate of
Sulu, coming form the
discussion with locals from
Sabah, kinikilala nila na

may ganong connection, but

they also willing to give that
citizenship as long as you
can also provide or give
your linage and given. I
don;t know what the big
deals of claiming SI think
we can only do it two ways
either diplomatically or
invade Malaysia, militarily.
We have 88 million
Filipinos I think with 2
fighter jets, M16, we cannot
annex it like Iraq, we cant
just go there and this is
ours.. Sabah is under
martial rules. You cant even
walk around without your
passport so mahirap talaga!
I dont know how anong
klasenf process. Gusto kong
tulunganmga Filipino pero
problema tong sabah
claim..Honestly.. wag na
lang (laugh)

Dir.
NIMFA

Siguro you can what is

MRS.
SANA

Me personally, wala a
kong masyadong alam
sa Sabah. And I think,
the leats that I can do is
respect. Ifg there a way
for our government to
claim back definitely on
go kami doon, kaya
lang, ang bumabangga

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rightfully yours, you can

really put a claim to it diba?
What is necessary perhaps
political will, exhausting al
possible means though the
diplomatic channel. And
also multilateral
intervention and of course
hopes brings eternal.
Parang ganun na lang
( laught)

in a way is yung
reasoning ng Sabah
claim is whats
happening to our people
in Sabah? If you see the
applicators. Malaysia
has all tyhe requirement
para sabihin talaga na
this is part of
Malaysia.even if you are
Filipino you are require
to have a passport,
paano mo sasasbihin na
hindi ka pumunta sa
abroad? Pero ayaw ko
pong doon bumara yung
usapan eh na because
of this claim, were
stuck! Because I think
even we have that
claim, lets put that
claim pero we can still
have do something our
kababayan in Sabah. At
the end of the day,
whats matters to
people is that
natulungan ba kami? Na
uphold ba yung dignity
namin?kasi yun yung
mas burning na issue in
the migrant group. With
our prejudices, I think
we are not in the
position to say na
definitely we support!
yung sabi n gating mga
leaders sa south na
there is a legitimate
claim to Sabah
WILLIE
from
Committe
on
Muslim
Affairs
PAMELA
FROM
CPBD

If you can provide us

with the outline of your
presentation

DIR.
DEGUZM
AN

We are still working for it,

hopefully by mid November
we can provide you

I was wondering if there is

any profile of Filipino
deportee

DIR.
NIMPA

I dont have a profile but I

have a classification of
gender and age bracket.

12

PAX

I was wondering if possible

for them to get registered
themselves in Tawi-tawi..

THELMA

The buttom line is poverty,

that our country the
philippines cannot provide
enough jobs. As a matter of
fact ang tawag sa kanila
ngayon is mga bagong
bayani but look at how they
are being treated? Bakit
yung sabah issue until now,
it has not been resolve
SHARIFAR There are lots of deportees
TUL
from Sapah Sapah na
IMAN
nahahalaw..lumake ako na
LADJABAS
ganun na yung setting
AL
hangnang ngayon ganun
CIPYML 9
parin.. May grandfather
Intern
dati they sell copra to
Malaysia.. It has become a
cycle.Do you have
employment or programs
para ma cut yung cyle na
yun? Bumabalik sila agad
in 3 days.. when you ask
them, sinasabi nila yung
mga pahirap kasi atleast
dun may hinihintay sila.
merun na bang mga
interventions and how
effective?
3:20-3:50
4:00-4:40
4:40 4:55

DIR.
NIMPA

When you will go there with

Christian name, you come
back and adopt Muslim
name it will be a problem,,,
nag convert in to Muslim to
be able to enter to
Malaysia, kaya medyo
lumalabo na yung
documentation.

EXCUTIVE I think we can still do

DIR.
something about the
EDGARDO
situation.
LIGON

EXCUTIVE we need to have committees..

DIR.
walang nag iinvest natatakot.
EDGARDO
LIGON

Policy Initiatives: Legislative

Branch
REACTION
OPEN FORUM
13

4:55-5:00

Closing Program

(Note: Jam kulang record sa tape heto lang yung nakuha ko doon, insert mo
rin yung complete names ng mge invited speakers)

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