AP FILE PHOTO
LAHAD DATU, Sabah, Malaysia—The Philippine humanitarian and consular assistance team dispatched by the government to help Filipino evacuees caught in the Sabah crisis could not even step into the evacuation centers without written permission from the Malaysian government.
At the Cenderawasih gym on Friday, security personnel demanded that the five-member composed of Filipino diplomats first show a permit for the gates to be opened for them.
Cenderawasih is located in Felda Sahabat, a vast palm oil plantation where most of the fighting between the so-called Royal Army of the Sultanate of Sulu and the Malaysian security forces has taken place.
Two of the diplomats spoke with the official in charge of the evacuation center.
“I told him that we just want to send food and water to the Filipino evacuees. He said we should first submit a written permission from their government,” one of the team members told Filipino reporters covering the Sabah crisis here.
The Philippine Daily Inquirer, GMA-7 and ABS-CBN were with the humanitarian team outside the gate, hoping to get access as well to the Filipino evacuees.
After being turned away at Cenderawasih, the group drove to Embara Budi, another area some 10 minutes away, to try to go the evacuation center there.
On the street leading to the evacuation center was a police checkpoint, which prevented the group from entering. No explanation was given as to why the Malaysian security personnel had to turn away the Filipino diplomats and journalists.
ABS-CBN’s Henry Omaga-Diaz reported that the Filipino diplomats in Tuwau also could not provide consular assistance to the Filipinos there because of the lack of official permission from the Malaysian government.
Last Tuesday, the Philippine Daily Inquirer and GMA 7 were allowed inside the Embara Budi evacuation center but only to take video footage and not to interview the evacuees.
Last Monday, the embassy team “found a way to enter” Cenderawasih, as one diplomat said, but it was asked to leave after a few minutes. It was there that the team learned of the Embara Budi and Fajar Harapan evacuation centers.
During the team’s brief stay at Cenderawasih, it was able to take photographs and talk to some Filipino evacuees who told them they were given adequate food and medical supplies.
The evacuees were mostly residents of the villages where the fighting took place.
The Malaysia Daily reported Malaysian Foreign Minister Anifah Amab as saying the government could not grant Philippine officials “legal access” to the Filipinos in detention because “the investigation on suspicions that they provided help or security information to the terrorists is continuing.”
The embassy team said it remained hopeful that Malaysian authorities would grant its request to have access to the Filipino evacuees.