Boat of Pinoys sneaking into Sabah capsizes; 4 dead, 3 missing

MANILA, Philippines - A boat carrying 12 Filipinos trying to sneak into Sabah capsized on January 13, leaving at least four dead and three missing.

Foreign Affairs spokesperson Bayani Mangibin told GMANews.TV on Monday that only five passengers of the ill-fated boat survived. But since the Filipinos were undocumented, Mangibin said the immediate identification of the survivors and the casualties is difficult.

The New Straits Times earlier reported that the bodies of four Filipinos – three children and a woman – had been recovered off a beach in Kampung Tinosa, Malaysia.

The victims were identified as Madeline Ahamal, 19; three-year-olds Bibi Lain Mokhtar and Nagd Faikal Bastri; and Nagd's two-month-old brother Rajimal Bastri.

According to the report, authorities have sent the recovered bodies to the Duchess of Kent Hospital in Sandakan, Malaysia and will continue to look for the three who are still missing.

Citing reports from Malaysia’s Maritime Enforcement Agency, Mangibin said the Filipinos were on their way to Pulau in Sabah when tragedy struck.

Mangibin said they are still looking for the three other Filipinos reported missing in the incident.
Hundreds of undocumented Filipinos, mostly originating from Mindanao in southern Philippines, are deported every month as part of Malaysia’s massive campaign to rid its shores of unwanted immigrants.

The crackdown on illegal migrants in Malaysia has started in 2002, with the searches extending from construction sites in Kuala Lumpur to Sabah 's oil palm plantations.

Foreign Affairs Undersecretary Esteban Conejos, in an earlier interview, said it is very likely that the deported Filipinos would keep returning to Sabah, which they consider more as their home.

"They go back to Sabah because our ties [there] is so strong. They don’t understand why they need a Philippine passport and a visa to enter Sabah," Conejos said.

Kuala Lumpur had previously given amnesty that allowed illegal immigrants to leave the country with a promise they could return as legal workers once they received proper documents.

The government's tough action has enjoyed popular support in Malaysia, where illegal workers, who had numbered more than a million in a country of 24 million people, have been blamed for crime and other social ills. - Mark Joseph Ubalde, GMANews.TV

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

PCG: China’s bullying in West Philippine Sea undermines international law --- Ghio Ong - The Philippine Star

MANILA, Philippines — Letting China sustain its aggression in the West Philippine Sea would make other countries doubt the strength of international law currently being asserted by the Philippines, Commodore Jay Tarriela of the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) said. “Allowing China to blatantly disregard the established rules-based order threatens the very foundation that we all depend on,” he wrote in a post on X last Tuesday. He added, “If we permit this, countries worldwide may forget why this order was created in the first place. Nations could begin to doubt the significance of adhering to international law if powerful bullies can easily violate it.” Tarriela also said defiance of other countries to a rules-based order would result in the prevalence of cruelty. He wrote, “This could lead us back to a time when might makes right, undermining the global structures that keep human greed, savagery and barbarism in check. Such a scenario would not only invite challenges from aggressive ...
Read more

China ships maintain presence in key West Philippine Sea areas --- Michael Punongbayan - The Philippine Star

STAR / Michael Varcas MANILA, Philippines — While Chinese vessels in the West Philippine Sea (WPS) have decreased in number, they have maintained a presence in three key land features where naval and coast guard ships have intensified operations in the past seven days, according to the Philippine Navy. Latest monitoring by the Philippine Navy showed armed ships of the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) maintaining a menacing presence around the grounded BRP Sierra Madre in Ayungin Shoal, Panatag Shoal and Escoda Shoal. According to the Philippine Navy, there are 17 Chinese military vessels and 28 China Coast Guard (CCG) boats spotted inside the country’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ) between Sept. 23 and 30, or one vessel more than in the previous week Sept.17-23. Five of the warships were seen roaming around the vicinity of Escoda Shoal, along with 10 CCG vessels and 12 maritime militia vessels (MMVs). There are also two PLAN ships in Ayungin Shoal as well as 10 CCG boats and 12...
Read more

Social media seen as cause of rising intermarriages --- Helen Flores - The Philippine Star

MANILA, Philippines — The Commission on Filipinos Overseas (CFO) sees social media as the main reason for the rising number of Filipinos marrying or becoming partners of foreign nationals. In 2022, the CFO recorded 6,854 marriages or partnerships with foreign nationals, a 40.1 percent increase from the 4,891 “intermarriages” recorded in 2021. “First of all, what we see in the increase in the marriage rate of Filipinos or Filipinos with foreign partners is because of social media, (that) is number one; matchings; letters, introduction of their friends,” CFO chairperson Romulo Arugay said at the Bagong Pilipinas Ngayon public briefing yesterday. Arugay said the agency has been registering a high number of intermarriages since 2007, but the figures went down during the COVID-19 pandemic. From over 6,500 Filipinos who married foreign nationals, only 600 are men, he said. Most of them are married to Americans, Japanese, Germans, Canadians and Australians, Arugay said. Arugay warned Fi...
Read more