Muslim rebel leader who escaped war in Mindanao wants to become Malaysian citizen

From the Mindanao Examiner (Jan 20): Muslim rebel leader who escaped war in Mindanao wants to become Malaysian citizen

A former Muslim rebel leader, who sought safe refuge in Sabah after escaping a civil war in the southern Philippines almost four decades ago, now wanted to renounce his Filipino citizenship to become a naturalized Malaysian. Abdul Halil Aranial, whose nom de geurre was Commander Janggut, said he and six other rebel leaders of the Moro National Liberation Front escaped the war in Basilan province in 1975 and fled to Jampiras Island, according to a report by the online newspaper Borneo Post. Aranial said he has no wish to return home to Basilan, although he is aware of the changes that have happened in the southern Philippines and that he would only travel there to visit relatives.

“We were running out of ammunition and food so we decided to seek help from neighboring Islamic countries to support our cause,” he told the Royal Commission of Inquiry. He said they travelled by speed boat and ended up in Jampiras just off Sandakan City. Aranial said they resided in Jampiras until 1980 before relocating to the refugee settlement in Kamping Air in Sandakan where he was employed in an oil palm plantation until his relocation to the Muslim Refugee Settlement in Keningau in 1993.

He said he obtained the IMM13 pass issued to refugees and used it for 19 years. And in 2009, Aranial said he applied for an Entry Permit and later in the same year applied again for Permanent Residence which was approved. “I hope the government would expedite the application process for my Malaysian citizenship,” Aranial said, adding he has now three wives and that all their 13 children. It was unknown whether Aranial’s companions are still alive or had returned to the southern Philippines after the MNLF signed a peace agreement with Filipino government in September 1996.

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