When we Filipinos talk about refugees, the first things that comes to our minds were the Vietnamese who once sought asylum in the Refugees Processing Centers in Morong, Bataan or in Palawan and were uprooted from their home country due to the civil war that lasted for years.
We never imagined that there are Filipino refugees in the country who were either displaced due to the ongoing drive of the military and the government against the separatists in Mindanao or farmers who were displaced due to land disputes.
These internal refugees keeps growing in numbers as the military operations in MILF or MNLF territories increased.
According to the statistics of the International Displacement Monitoring Center, an estimate of 515,000 Filipinos were displaced in the 23 places in Central and Southern Philippines due to internal conflicts between years 2007-2008 and around 59,000 Filipino Muslims already sought refuge in Sabah in Malaysia (according to a 2003 data by the USCRI).
“Bagong Buwan”, a movie directed by Ms. Marilou Diaz-Abaya already depicted the sorry state of our displaced Muslim brothers. She effectively revealed what went on the daily lives of our brothers in Mindanao and the characters portrayed by Cesar Montano chronicled the hardships of our people and the senseless conflict that still exist in that region.
War, land disputes or whatever the reason for internal displacement only proves the lack of focus by the government to address these concerns which most often is linked to poverty and lack of opportunities.
Migration, flight, refugees – they all fall in the same category as people either seek an escape to a harsh condition.
There will never be a clear solution in the conflict in Mindanao and land disputes will never be settled amicably.
The government must resolve the return or resettlement and reintegration of these displaced people or refugees but this can never be guaranteed considering the current priorities of the national government and even our legislators are mum about this problem since this concern is not part of their political agenda.
We may never see the immediate solution for rebuilding the lives of the Filipino refugees.
Malaysia continues their crackdown in Sabah and the peace process in Mindanao is in limbo. Even us migrant workers were being displaced by conflict in the Middle East, a double whammy for those who left the country due to poverty only to be caught in the crossfire in Lebanon or Iraq.
Will there be a solution? I am still believing and praying that there will be an answer to this concern. For the meantime, let’s work together in pressing for political reform and at the same time do our share in supporting organizations that work hard for this cause.
