Manila to review 'mixed marriages'

Manila to review 'mixed marriages'

MANILA (AFP): Twenty years after the Vietnam War, Philippine President Fidel Ramos said yesterday that his government will look into the status of the "stateless" offspring of mixed marriages between Filipinos and Indochinese boat people.

"I ordered a review of the present executive and legal policies pertinent to the so-called stateless citizens that come from Vietnamese-Philippine marriages or partnerships," he told a news conference.

He said the review is aimed at making the Philippines "a more hospitable and amenable place for these individuals."

There are no official estimates available on the number of these marriages and their children.

But Ramos said about 400,000 Indochinese boat people -- mostly Vietnamese -- had transited through the Philippines since the fall of Saigon, now Ho Chi Minh City, on their way to either third country resettlement or repatriation.

About 3,000 others are now interred at a government camp in the southwestern island of Palawan, awaiting repatriation to Vietnam which is scheduled to be completed at the end of the year.

"You can safely say that the Philippines performed the role of the good host," Ramos said, adding that the remaining Vietnamese "are those that do not choose to go back."

He said Manila continued to make arrangements with Hanoi "to normalize or expedite the return" of these people.

Commenting on the Vietnam War, in which the Philippines sided with the United States by sending troops to the South to perform non-combat civic action work, Ramos said, "We are happy and we are satisfied that we were able to help the people during our time."

Ramos, a retired general, served as operations officer to the Philippine military expedition to Vietnam between 1966 and 1968.