00:48.0
Is it a humanitarian act or a security threat?
00:52.0
Is the government really compelled to accept them?
00:58.0
It's within the constitutional grounds.
01:01.0
Pastor, we are one of the members of the United Nations
01:07.0
and one of the humanitarian objectives of the UN Charter
01:14.0
is really that people are not displaced necessarily
01:19.0
or have a place of sanctuary to escape prosecution
01:27.0
for their being oppressed in the grounds of political or otherwise race
01:39.0
or other reasons for accepting them.
01:47.0
Pastor, in the first question,
01:53.0
is the government really compelled to accept them?
02:00.0
The answer is no, Pastor.
02:02.0
There can never be a compulsion for any member state of the United Nations
02:08.0
that can be compelled to accept foreign nationals,
02:13.0
whether as refugees or in whatever status.
02:17.0
It is always within the discretion,
02:22.0
the power of discretion of the receiving state
02:26.0
to accept or refuse entry of other people other than its own national.
02:38.0
And I would say that the question is no.
02:42.0
We cannot be compelled to.
02:45.0
On the second issue of whether it is within the bounds of the constitution,
02:50.0
I said that as a member state of the United Nations,
02:55.0
I would say that it is within the bounds,
03:01.0
but it must be based,
03:04.0
the acceptance, our acceptance of nationals other than the Filipinos
03:12.0
must be based on valid and justifiable grounds.
03:18.0
Dito tayo sa second query, Pastor Namidjo.
03:25.0
May a lot of serious misgivings.
03:30.0
During the last episode of the Gikan Samasa para sa Masa,
03:38.0
I gave the opinion that as an act of humanitarian interest,
03:47.0
we may accept refugees of other countries,
03:55.0
but I said it must be based on valid grounds.
04:00.0
And actually, Pastor,
04:07.0
you know the Afghans come from a state where there was a civil war.
04:18.0
And itong mga nationals na gusto ng America,
04:27.0
natanggapin natin dito sa ating bayan as refugees.
04:35.0
Sinasabi nga nila economic,
04:40.0
they do not want to use the word refugees
04:43.0
when as a matter of fact, it is they are really refugees.
04:49.0
Balaro lang ito, it's a question of semantics.
04:52.0
You know, when you escape from your country
04:58.0
because you are out to be killed
05:01.0
or there will be serious retaliation against you
05:04.0
or in Afghanistan,
05:09.0
there was a change of government
05:11.0
and the rebels won.
05:13.0
At itong mga tao na sinasabi nila na economic,
05:18.0
I forgot the term, economic...
05:21.0
Economic migrants.
05:25.0
Itong, you know, when we deal in diplomacy,
05:31.0
we must deal in good faith.
05:34.0
Do not change the status of the term refugees to economic.
05:43.0
Kasi kung economic, bakit sila magpunta dito?
05:47.0
If they are considered economic migrants,
05:51.0
kung may pera sila economic,
05:54.0
di do na sila sa Afghanistan mag-invest.
05:57.0
It presupposes that investment,
06:00.0
magpunta sila dito economic.
06:03.0
That they have something to contribute to the economy.
06:07.0
But far from it, actually.
06:10.0
It is the convenient way of the United States
06:15.0
from saving those Afghan nationals
06:21.0
who were working for them when they were in Afghanistan.
06:26.0
Alam nila, they know that the rebels
06:32.0
would overwhelm the government
06:36.0
that the United States was trying to force Natalong.
06:45.0
At itong nagtatrabaho sa kanila,
06:48.0
obligado sila ngayon na tutulungan nila
06:51.0
to provide a safe haven.
06:57.0
these nationals come from a,
07:02.0
I do not want to term it,
07:04.0
but from a militant country
07:08.0
where there was really a revolution
07:11.0
because of the militants there
07:14.0
wanted to impose a government of their own.
07:18.0
Now, itong mga Afghanistan,
07:24.0
we were not part of the vetting or evaluation
07:29.0
whether we accept them as refugees
07:34.0
or as visitors or whatever.
07:38.0
We were never a part of that vetting, mag-evaluate.
07:45.0
So, how are we supposed to be secure
07:54.0
of the interest of our country
07:58.0
when we are accepting foreigners that we do not know?
08:04.0
Just because they were working for the United States
08:09.0
does not mean that it is a guarantee
08:12.0
that we are comfortable in accepting them.
08:23.0
Iba kasi, they might have other reasons
08:29.0
aside from being a refugee.
08:33.0
Maybe it was a matter of convenience for them
08:38.0
to work for the government forces there in Afghanistan.
08:43.0
But it does not automatically become a status
08:49.0
that you are freed from any ideology, belief, or thinking
09:00.0
that is that different from what they have right now.
09:05.0
Wala tayong garantia that they are or were members
09:12.0
of the radicals in Afghanistan.
09:16.0
For now, who own and are now running the government of Afghanistan?
09:24.0
Yan ang mahirap, Pastor.
09:26.0
And the contamination cannot be far away.
09:33.0
You know that we have an insurgency problem dito.
09:38.0
Muslim insurgency.
09:42.0
We have nothing against our brothers and sisters who are moral.
09:48.0
Wala tayong problema dyan. We love them.
09:52.0
But iyong ideology is different from blood or belief
09:59.0
or a shared love for the country.
10:03.0
It is an ideology of destruction and killing and bombing.
10:08.0
Mahirap yan, Pastor.
10:13.0
We might be unconsciously accepting
10:22.0
maybe a troubled group of persons.
10:28.0
We are not certain and I do not know how far we were allowed to vet,
10:36.0
to assess, to understand who are these people.
10:45.0
And the second is it is not a far-fetched idea
10:52.0
that because they are from a state, Natalo,
10:57.0
they were the former government people there.
11:06.0
It's not a far-fetched idea that they would also entertain
11:12.0
acts of revenge or whatever that would be detrimental to them,
11:18.0
not only to them but primarily in the country we are hosting
11:27.0
and between the nationals there.
11:32.0
Hindi natin alam ang dynamics talaga, Pastor.
11:38.0
Except we take it as true what the Americans are trying to tell us
11:49.0
that look, these are good people.
11:52.0
Accept them because they need to have a safe haven.
12:00.0
I have not really extensive, but in my days in government
12:08.0
from the time I was a prosecutor down to the mayorship,
12:13.0
a congressman, then to the presidency.
12:18.0
I have dealt with, not extensively I said,
12:23.0
but dealt with American guys.
12:31.0
I would say that they are purveyors of lies and half-truths.
12:39.0
And I myself cannot tell you as a Filipino now telling you,
12:48.0
the nation, that I will trust the Americans with their word.
12:56.0
I do not have that confidence in them.
13:02.0
Hindi ako anti-American.
13:07.0
Pero itong pamilya ko, the Zimmermann,
13:11.0
the forefathers came from the United States.
13:19.0
Although maybe Zimmermann is a Jewish,
13:23.0
original German word for surname.
13:30.0
Hindi ako, pati ang anak ko, si Kitty, was born in the United States.
13:36.0
And for that, I am thankful that she has been given the status
13:43.0
of an American citizen because the law there says that
13:47.0
if you are born in America, you are automatically,
13:52.0
or to a certain extent, be considered an American citizen.
13:59.0
Whether or not your father or your mother is of,
14:05.0
possess other citizenship or nationality.
14:12.0
Ako dito sa Americano, hindi ako kumpante.
14:26.0
If it turns out to be good, then okay.
14:30.0
Probably in the years to come,
14:34.0
I might apologize to the Afghan nationals.
14:38.0
But as of now, we rely only in reference to your characters,
14:47.0
vis-a-vis with the Americans,
14:50.0
who are the ones vetting everybody of you,
14:55.0
supporting them, the Americans,
14:58.0
to go to other countries to seek the right of sanctuary or refuge.
15:07.0
Kaya refugees yan eh.
15:09.0
Kailan pa ba ako nakarinig na there is an Afghan investor here?
15:17.0
So economic, in what sense?
15:20.0
Would he contribute something to the country?
15:23.0
Maybe the workforce.
15:30.0
In the natin alam, there are no guidelines given us
15:36.0
about how they are being processed under applications pursued.
15:45.0
And to what extent did our country participate,
15:50.0
I said, in the vetting of these foreign Afghan nationals
15:56.0
to come to the shores of the Philippines?
16:15.0
To be continued...
