Indonesian Migrants in Mindanao
LAST month, the Philippine government began identification of Indonesian migrants in Mindanao. They were offered a choice of repatriation to Indonesia, legalization or naturalization. Legalization allows the immigrants to stay in the Philippines and retain their Indonesian citizenship while naturalization provides the migrants with full Filipino citizenship. Most of the migrants came from the islands of Sangihe and Talaud in northern Sulawesi. The forefathers of these Indonesians, who have since taken Philippine citizenship, arrived in the southern Philippines in the 15th century. Locally called the Sangil, they considered themselves natives of Mindanao Island, although they spoke a language originating in Sangihe. Tempo correspondent Verrianto Madjowa traveled to Mindanao last September to observe the lives of the Indonesian migrants and filed this report.
December 6, 2005
COUPLET by couplet the song flowed from a small house with earthen floor and thatched roofs on the shores of Cablalan.
Banuaku i kekendage,tamailang su ralungu naungManing maliku u dunia,sau mesule o kapia...
(The land I love,never shall I forgetThough Ive been all over the world,It is to you that I will return)
The song Dala pia Bongkone Mahoro (Top of the Mountain) played on an old tape recorder, reminds the Indonesian migrants of an island of the
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