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.