Slices of life at a makeshift center for Filipino returnees

by JEREMAIAH M. OPINIANO (Institute on Church and Social Issues)
OFW Journalism Consortium

BRGY. MAAMPANG, ZAMBOANGA CITY -- Two-year-old Jaypol Paradia and his one-year-old sister Jaipa, children of a family deported from Sabah, Malaysia, were quarrelling over a chocolate bar, a gift from Evelyn Duriman of the Commission on Filipinos Overseas (CFO), which conducted a relief mission for the Sabah deportees last September 26.

Duriman had given the chocolate bar to the baby girl, but Jaypol grabbed it from Jaipa, making her cry.

"Huwag kayong mag-away (Do not quarrel)," said their mother Jennifer Custodio-Paradia, who was breastfeeding her infant son Jaipur. Jennifer remarked that when the family was ferried from Sabah by Navy boat last Sept. 22, "Ang payat-payat nila (they were very thin)."

Through its Lingkod sa Kapwa Pilipino (Service to Fellow Filipinos) (LinKaPil) program, CFO delivered 57 bags of food and two boxes of medicines for the deportees, who have been housed in 20 tents near the Area Vocational Resource Center (AVRC), managed by the Region 9 office of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) in Maampang.

Duriman and fellow CFO employee Marita del Rosario, who both work for the LinKaPil program, facilitated the relief mission.

In addition to the disruption of their lives and the uncertainty over their future, the returnees have had to endure the humidity and swarms of flies in the makeshift center, set up in a field where chickens were previously raised.

The Paradia family was upbeat that day, however, as they were scheduled to go back to their locality-the town of Buug, in the newly-created Zamboanga Sibugay--that evening. Their bags were packed with clothing, spare food, and labeled water jugs donated by the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the French NGO Medicins Sans Frontiers (Doctors Without Borders).

'Boluntaryo kaming sumuko'

"Boluntaryo kaming sumuko doon sa Malaysia (Our family voluntarily surrendered in Malaysia)," explained Jennifer. "Kapag boluntaryo kang sumuko, maiuuwi mo ang mga gamit mo at pera. Nagbigay naman sila ng notice (If you voluntarily surrender, you can bring home your things to the Philippines. They did give us notice)."

Jennifer said that the police were strict during the roundup of the irregulars, "kahit may bata kaming kasama (even if we had children with us)."

Without any papers, Jennifer and her husband Jose went to Sabah via the southern back door in 1993. Sabah is only a 45-minute boat ride from Tawi-tawi, the southernmost province of the Philippine archipelago.

Jose operated a tractor in the farm owned by a Malaysian, earning 2000 ringgit (approximately P27,600) on a per-contract basis.

When the couple was asked if they wanted to go back to Malaysia, Jose said "No", but Jennifer said, "Ewan ko sa kaniya (I don't know what he's thinking)." Jose does not have relatives in Malaysia, but Jennifer's mother, a homemaker, stays in Sabah legally.

"Hindi ko pa alam kung anong magiging trabaho ko pagbalik namin ng Buug (I don't know what my work will be when I go back to Buug)," said Jose. If the economic prospects are bleak in Buug, "Baka bumalik ako sa Sabah (I might go back to Sabah)."

Back to Sabah if given the chance

Another deportee, Erwin Juma, was cooking sardines with upo (gourd) for the returnees and their families. Juma, who claims to have relatives in Basilan and Zamboanga City, volunteered to be the cook for the makeshift deportees' center near the AVRC building.

"Eh paano, walang trabaho kaya dito muna ako sa AVRC para may makain naman ako sa araw-araw (What can we do? There's no work, so I stay here at AVRC so I can have something to eat everyday)," Juma said while opening another two cans of sardines.

As the volunteer cook for the AVRC, Juma said he is given a "modest sum" daily, though a DSWD social worker refused to specify how much Juma receives for his work.

Juma was smiling and joking that day, as he celebrated anniversary of his first trip to Sabah--Sept. 25, 1990-where he worked as a welder earning 30 ringgit (approximately P414) a day. He married an Indonesian woman, but they have separated since.

A DSWD social worker said that while Juma claims to have relatives in Zamboanga City and Basilan, he does not appear to want to find them.

In fact, given the chance to go back to Malaysia, Juma says he would do so "via the backdoor once again". "Wala naman akong visa doon kasi (Because I don't have a visa to Malaysia)," he remarked, perhaps confusing a visa with a passport.

No visa is required of Filipinos entering Malaysia, or any other ASEAN member-state. The current crackdown in Malaysia is on undocumented workers who did not have passports when they entered the country.

'It is truly difficult'

The Paradia family and Juma were among the hundreds being assisted by DSWD Region 9 to facilitate their return to their towns of origin. DSWD staff members, even as they acknowledge that "it is truly difficult", say that they are doing all they can to help the returnees.

Felicito Arevalo, who manages the AVRC, explained that the makeshift refugee camp serves as a temporary shelter for returnees who have no place to stay or who have yet to find their relatives.

The DSWD tries to facilitate the deportees' immediate return to their hometowns to the point of giving them transportation fare.

A DSWD report on the deportees and voluntary repatriates wrote that 9,914 returnees come from provinces in the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM)-- particularly Tawi-tawi, Sulu and Basilan.

Some 3,386 others come Region 9--notably Zamboanga City, Zamboanga del Norte, and Zamboanga del Sur--while 315 others come from as far away as Palawan.

The CFO's LinKaPil (also called the Link to Philippine Development program) is the government's single biggest systematic philanthropy program that solicits donations from overseas Filipinos. Since 1990, LinKaPil has received over P1.098 billion in monetary and in-kind donations from 1,239 individual and organized overseas Filipinos.

One of those who received a bag of food from Duriman and del Rosario was Jose Paradia who smiled as he accepted the donation.

"Salamat po sa inyo (Thank you very much)," Paradia said.

"Ingat po sa pag-uwi ninyo mamaya sa Zamboanga Sibuguey (Have a safe trip home to Zamboanga Sibuguey)," one of the CFO people said, knowing that Jose's future when he returned to his hometown was still uncertain, and that he and his family might be back in Sabah sometime soon.