Safety of Filipinos from Sabah assured

President Benigno Aquino III has ordered Cabinet members concerned to ensure the safety of Filipinos in southern Philippines in view of Malaysia’s crack down on the supporters of Sulu Sultan in Sabah.

This develops as government expects more Filipinos to leave Sabah, following the arrival of 1,500 undocumented Filipinos on Friday at the coastal towns in the provinces of Sulu and Tawi-Tawi.

Social Welfare Secretary Dinky Soliman said that some 450 of the evacuees arrived at Siasi in Sulu, and at Bongao in Tawi-Tawi after they left the town of Lahad Datu and the city of Sandakan in Sabah.

“We are extending assistance to them by providing them meals,” Soliman told reporters on Tuesday. “We helped them to return to their homes in Tawi-Tawi, Sulu and Zamboanga.”

Also on Tuesday, Interior Secretary Mar Roxas led an interagency meeting in Camp Crame upon orders by the president, to map out government plan to addressing problems that may arise from the arrival of Filipinos from Sabah.

“The president wants the heads of government agencies to ensure that there will be sufficient supply of food and government support to our countrymen in Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi,” he stressed.

The administrator of National Food Authority (NFA), Orlan Calayag, said more than 2,200 sacks of rice were delivered to some areas in Tawi-Tawi and Sulu for Filipinos from Sabah in evacuations centres.

Stressing that there is enough stocks of rice, Calayag added that NFA is prepared to deliver 100,000 sacks of rice to Basilan, Tawi-Tawi and Sulu.

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