FILIPINO REFUGEE GOT MALAYSIAN IC WITHOUT APPLYING FOR IT?

KOTA KINABALU, Malaysia Borneo — A Filipino refugee told the Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) on illegal immigrants here today that he had received a blue identity card without applying for it.

Ismail Balaka said he fled to Sabah in 1975 to escape the civil war in the Philippines.

“Did you obtain your identity card without going to the National Registration Department (NRD)?” asked conducting officer Jamil Aripin at the RCI here today.

 “That’s correct,” said Ismail.

He added that he also registered as a voter and has voted five times in Sabah.

Ismail, a shipbuilding worker, said he is now staying at the Kinarut settlement in Sabah with his second Filipino wife and their four children, who all have blue identity cards too.

• He added that his first wife, who is also from the Philippines, was taking care of their five children.
• Ismail said he and some others were called one day to gather at their village hall, but did not specify when.
• Some people, whom Ismail said he could not identify, told him and the other villagers to sign a form, give their fingerprints and have their picture taken.
• “I heard that we would be given Malaysian identity cards. After three or five months, I received a blue identity card,” said Ismail, according to his statement to the police that Jamil read out.

Source: The Malaysian Insider...More news...