Fifty-seven Filipinos, including children, arrived in Bongao, Tawi-Tawi, in small motorboats yesterday morning after fleeing Semporna where, they said, they were being chased down by Malaysian security forces.

NONE The evacuees, whose arrival was unexpected, said they had cast off from Semporna around 8pm on Sunday, sailing all night and reaching Sitangkay, the last island of the Tawi-Tawi chain and the nearest to Semporna, on yesterday morning.

It was in Semporna that six Malaysian police officers and six Filipinos were killed last week after violence broke out between followers of the Sulu sultanate and Malaysian security forces.

NONE The evacuees told members of Task Force Basulta in Tawi-Tawi that they had no chance to take food or even money when they left because they had been hiding for days to evade Malaysian authorities who have been rounding up undocumented Filipinos and those they suspect of supporting the sultanate.

The task force is an inter-agency body created to deal with the expected influx of Filipinos from Sabah to escape fighting in the territory and a crackdown by Malaysian authorities.

NONE In Sitangkay, the evacuees said they had to sell some of their belongings so they could buy food and fuel for the final haul to Bongao, which they reached at around 11am.

From Bongao, the evacuees boarded a boat that ferried them to South Ubian municipality, where most of them came from.

- InterAksyon

 

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