Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, March 2) — President Rodrigo Duterte has signed an executive order which establishes an inter-agency committee that would protect refugees, stateless persons, and asylum seekers in the country.
Under Executive Order No. 163, the Inter-Agency Committee on the Protection of Refugees, Stateless Persons, and Asylum Seekers will be spearheaded by the secretaries of the Department of Justice and Department of Social Welfare and Development as chairperson and vice chairperson, respectively.
The executive order is in compliance with the 1951 United Nations Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees and its 1967 Protocol, the 1954 UN Convention Relating to the Status of Stateless Person, and 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness.
“The State shall closely monitor and ensure full protection of the rights of POCs [persons of concern] to liberty and security, and freedom of movement. Subject to applicable laws and issuances, the minimum standards for the treatment of refugees shall be assured,” the executive order said. “These shall include the provision of access to socioeconomic services, social security benefits, gainful employment, and humane working conditions, education, participation in judicial and administrative citizenship proceedings, legal assistance, and access to courts, and freedom of religion.”
Moreover, the local government units are encouraged to support the integration of the persons of concern (POCs) within their community.
But the order also notes that POCs “have the concomitant obligation to abide by the laws and regulations of the country, including measures relations to the protection of public health, and maintenance of public order and national security.”
The Philippines has had a long history of accepting refugees, including the so-called “White Russians” fleeing from persecution from “Red Russians” or supporters of the Socialist Revolution of 1917, European Jews fleeing from Nazi rule during World War II and Vietnamese boat people from the 1970s to 1990s.
