No longer at risk of statelessness: The case among persons of Indonesian descent in Southern Mindanao

BECAUSE of North Sulawesi and other Indonesian islands' proximity to Southern Mindanao, it is not surprising that there are some persons of Indonesian descent (PIDs) who are living in this part of our country. The PIDs could be: a) children of Filipino mothers who were legally married to Indonesian citizens at the time of the 1935 Constitution's effectivity but were unable to select Philippine citizenship upon reaching the age of maturity, and b) those born in the Philippines of Indonesian parents but who lost their Indonesian citizenship under the country's nationality laws. Indonesians lose their citizenship if they stay outside their country for five consecutive years, and they do not indicate their intention to remain as Indonesian citizens before the five-year period ends, and they do not report every five years to an Indonesian government representative. Before the intervention of the Philippine and Indonesian governments a decade ago, most of the PIDs in Southern Mindanao fell under the second category and were at risk of becoming stateless. According to the United Nations High Commissioner on Refugees (UNHCR), a stateless individual is "a person who is not considered as a national by any state under the operation of its law."

Who are the PIDs and how do Filipinos in the communities where they live relate to them? Why are they not repatriated to Indonesia? What support did the Philippine and Indonesian governments provide to protect them from becoming stateless? The PIDs' plight was well documented in the July 2018 research report of Rosena Sanchez, a retired professor, social scientist and gender expert of the Ateneo de Davao University. Miss Sanchez's research is part of a 10-country study that was spearheaded by the Asean Commission on the Promotion and Protection of the Rights of Women and Children (ACWC). I am grateful to her for sharing her important study.