HINDI pabor si dating Pangulong Rodrigo Roa Duterte na gawing processing center ang Pilipinas para sa Afghan refugees na kasalukuyang pinag-aaralan pa kung makakapasok sa Amerika.
Ito ang inihayag ng dating Pangulo sa programang “Gikan sa Masa Para sa Masa” kasama si Pastor Apollo C. Quiboloy noong Lunes.
Kinuwestyon ng dating Pangulo kung nasasaad ba ito sa batas dahil malinaw umano na nakalagay sa United Nation Charter na hindi mandatoryo ang pagtanggap sa refugees.
Ang tatanggap na bansa aniya ang madedesisyon kung magiging bukas ito para sa refugees.
“Itong pangunahing tanong Pastor, the hosting of Afghan nationals in the Philippines while their US immigration applications are being processed: Is it a humanitarian act or a security threat? Is the government really compelled to accept them? Is it within the bounds of the Constitution?”
“Pastor, we are one of the members of the United Nations and one of the humanitarian objectives of the UN Charter is really that the people are not displaced unnecessarily or have a place of sanctuary to escape prosecution or being oppressed on the grounds of political or otherwise race, another reason for accepting them,” ayon kay dating Pangulong Duterte.
FPRRD, kinuwestiyon ang terminong ‘economic migrants’ para sa Afghan refugees
Dagdag pa ni Duterte, kung totoong economic migrants ang mga refugee na ito ay bakit pa sila dito mag-iinvest kung puwede naman itong mag-invest sa sarili nitong bansa.
“When we deal in diplomacy, we must deal in good faith. Do not change the status of the term refugees to economic migrants. Kasi kung mag economic, bakit sila magpunta dito? If they are considered economic migrants kung may pera sila economically, doon na sila sa Afghanistan mag-invest.”
“It presupposes that they invest, magpunta sila dito economic, that they have something to contribute to the economy, but far from it actually it is the convenient way of the United States from saving those Afghan nationals who are working for them when they were in Afghanistan,” dagdag ni Duterte.
Ayon sa dating Pangulo, ito ang hindi magandang ugali ng Amerika, ang paglaruan ang mga salita na binibitiwan nito.
“And itong, ang ayaw ko dito, the penchant of America to juggle words—semantics. ‘Economic migrants.’ If they are economic migrants, why don’t you just apply visas to any European country? Pera-pera naman pag-usapan pa pala ito, they would be happy to accept them kung economic migrants. Why the Philippines? At ilang bayan, how many countries have they asked to accept Afghan refugees? At iilan?” ani Duterte.
Proseso sa pagtanggap ng Afghan refugees, kinakailangan munang linawin —FPRRD
Sinabi rin ni Duterte na hindi malinaw ang proseso ng aplikasyon ng mga Afghan refugee na ito at, wala rin umanong nilahukan na imbestigasyon ang gobyerno ukol sa mga dayuhang ito na tinatangkang ipasok sa Pilipinas.
“Kailan pa ba ako nakarinig na there is an Afghan investor here? So in economics, in what sense? Or do they contribute something to the country? Maybe the workforce, but how many? Hindi natin alam, there are no guidelines given us about how they are being processed and their applications pursued and to what extent did our country participate I said in the vetting of these foreign Afghan nationals to come to the shores of the Philippines.”
“Relying on America alone to me is not good enough as a matter of fact Pastor I would say it’s a danger zone,” aniya.
Ayon naman kay Pastor Apollo, base sa mga datos, walang anumang Asyanong bansa na tumanggap ng Afghan refugees.
Lahat ng mga bansang tumanggap nito ay ‘yung mga karatig-bansa lamang ng Afghanistan at ang iba ay sa Europa na.
Sinang-ayunan naman ito ni Duterte at sinabing malaki na ang populasyon ng Pilipinas para tumanggap pa ng refugees mula Afghanistan.
“But we note here, that there is not one Asian country that hosted any of these Afghan refugees. They are all neighboring countries of Afghanistan and some are in Europe. Walang Indonesia, walang Malaysia, walang Japan, walang Thailand, walang Singapore. It’s only the Philippines that was mentioned to bring refugees here,” ayon kay Pastor Apollo C. Quiboloy, The Kingdom of Jesus Christ.
“You know the Philippines is just of so many thousands, small islands—Luzon, Visayas, Mindanao—compared to the global land area, ang konti masyado. And we are overcrowded here by now 12 million. Marami na tayo dito.”
“Itong mga ito, (they are) progressive (countries) and they can provide immediate economic assistance in terms of jobs and money. Dito naman sa atin, kakaunti lang, Pastor. And we have, I said, this problem of insurgency. Iyan ang pinakaproblema diyan eh,” ani Duterte.
Matatandaan na una nang sinabi ni Philippine Ambassador to the United States Jose Manuel Romualdez na kung papayagan ng administrasyong Marcos ay 1,000 – 1,500 Afghan refugees kada buwan ang dadalhin sa bansa.
