Philippines Refuses 65 Filipino Children

The Philippine government is refusing to issue travel documents for 65 illegal Filipino children being held in immigration detention centers in Malaysia according to Bernama. These children were picked up for immigration violations and put in detention centers pending deportation. It looks like the Philippines is trying to avoid the problem of taking care of these 645 children by this delaying tactic.

Both sides do share blame in this matter. The children being held are street children and should be taken care of by the host government, outside of an immigration detention center. This is cruel punishment for children whose only crime was to have irresponsible parents, parents who left them to fend for themselves on the streets. These children have no home and most likely don’t even have a home back in the Philippines. Malaysia should be doing more to take care of these children.

The Philippines is definitely at fault. Citizens should always be protected by their embassies when they are abroad. These children are languishing in an immigration detention center when very easily the government could issue the travel documents and repatriate the children back to the Philippines. Of course this would cost the Philippines money, better to let Malaysia feed and clothe them in an immigration detention center than have to pay to do that in the Philippines. Remember it is all about the benjamins or should I say the rizales.

The best course of action would be to declare these children to be abandoned. This would clear the way for these children to be cared for as orphans in Malaysia, give these children Malaysian residency. This would allow them to contribute to the betterment of Malaysia and allow them to break off all ties to the evil regime in Manila. In my opinion, the GMA regime in Manila should suffer a huge PR disaster because of this, but it won’t. Everyone already knows how corrupt and uncaring it is.

Several years ago, the Philippine government protested the mistreatment of Filipino illegals in Malaysia. They were herded into immigration detention centers throughout Sabah and deported as soon possible to the Philippines. In little sidebar articles in Malaysia newspapers running up to the action, the Philippine Embassy in Kuala Lumpur was reported as doing what it could to help out the Malaysia Immigration Department. After the action, many allegations were made against the Malaysian government holding Filipinos in immigration detention centers for excessive time, well that argument doesn’t hold water anymore. The Philippine government is doing what it can to delay and keep Filipino citizens incarcerated.

What good is a government that can longer protect its citizens?