Indonesians make most of porous Philippine border

Indonesians make most of porous Philippine border

Manny Mogato Reuters/Glan, Philippines

From behind a pair of binoculars that have seen far better days, Amancio Wagwag searches the sea for intruders.

There is no shortage of activity.

For the next 12 hours, the 30-year-old skipper of a Coast Guard gunboat will play a dangerous game of cat-and-mouse with hundreds of boats shuttling between North Sulawesi in eastern Indonesia and Mindanao in the southern Philippines.

But if a fruitless first three months on the job are anything to go by, his chances of making an arrest are slim.

"This is a very lonely and difficult job," Wagwag told a guest on his small, noisy boat, loaded with two machine guns and three other crew members.

"We only have one gunboat patrolling a 160-km long coastline and our old boat is no match for high-speed outriggers carrying contraband, including illegal entrants, from Indonesia."

Complicating the situation are the thousands of Indonesians who have migrated to the southern Philippines, and many go back and forth across the water border with virtual impunity.

Just about anything that can be bought cheaply in Indonesia is smuggled into Mindanao, from pirated DVDs to ceramic floor tiles and even exotic birds. More worryingly for Wagwag, pirates also sail these seas and they are often better armed and equipped than the coast guards.

These days, thinly stretched Philippine security forces are also under pressure to keep a watchful eye on a more deadly export -- militants from Indonesia.

The links between Mindanao and Southeast Asian militant group Jamaah Islamiyah were highlighted once more by reports that one of the two main suspects in the recent bombing outside the Australian embassy in Jakarta had trained on the island.

Security officials believe hundreds of Jamaah Islamiyah operatives have used Mindanao as a training base and refuge, drawn by its lawless jungles and mountains home to four separate Muslim rebel groups.

Tracking down the militants has been made more difficult by their apparent links with elements of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, the Philippines' main Muslim rebel group.

But they are also able to blend in with thousands of Indonesians who have made Mindanao their home.

Officials estimate there are between 10,000 and 15,000 Indonesians in Mindanao, most of them concentrated in islands off the coast, villages around cities such as General Santos and Davao, and the plains of South Cotabato.

More than 5,000 cast their votes in the first round of Indonesian presidential elections in July although only a handful of Indonesian residents are legal under Philippine law.

Indonesia has been the source of cheap farm labor since the 1920s when illegal migrants from North Sulawesi worked in coconut plantation, rice mills and as servants.

Later, many were employed in the tuna industry.

The island, home to the poorest provinces in the Philippines, is viewed as an economic promised land by Indonesians from remote parts of North Sulawesi. Many are Christians, helping their assimilation into the mainly Roman Catholic Philippines.

"Life is much, much better here," said Mamasi Mendumba, who left his home in Sangir island off North Sulawesi in 1966 after a powerful volcanic eruption.

"We're better off here because it's easy to find a job and the pay is much higher than in Indonesia."

For those with an entrepreneurial spirit, the opportunities are abundant.

Numerous moves over the years to get the Indonesians to register or send them home have failed.

Immigration officer Ernesto Mercado said the government had no clear policy on how to deal with the growing number of undocumented Indonesians.

"These people have nowhere to go home in Indonesia," he said. "They know only one home -- that's here in Mindanao."