DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / 2 January) – Indonesian Foreign Affairs Minister Retno Marsudi will visit Davao City on Wednesday to launch the Islamic education cooperation program with the Philippines and to confer passports to Indonesians living in Mindanao.
Marsudi will lead the launch of Indonesian-Philippines Islamic Education Cooperation, along with her Philippine counterpart, Foreign Affairs Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano and Education Secretary Leonor Briones at the Al-Munawwara Islamic School in Ma-a, Davao City, Wednesday morning.
This cooperation program is a follow-up to the discussion of foreign ministers during the 50th ASEAN Summit in Manila on November 12, 2017 after President Rodrigo R. Duterte and Indonesian President Joko Widodo agreed to strengthen cooperation.
Also on Wednesday, Indonesian Consul General Berlian Napitupulu will assist Marusdi in a ceremony scheduled in the afternoon at the House of Indonesia here on Calamansi Street, Juna Subdivision in Matina.
The number of Indonesians to be given passports has yet to be known but the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees said that over 8,000 persons of Indonesian descent are living in Mindanao.
It added that these people face the risk of statelessness due to “unclear nationality status passed on across generations” and may have no access to basic rights such as health care, education, and employment.
During the launch of the Davao-General Santos-Bitung sea connectivity last April 30, Widodo became the second head of state to visit Davao City where Duterte served as mayor for 22 years.
On January 13 last year, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe visited the city where he was taken on a quick tour in his house in Dona Luisa Subdivision in Matina, Davao City on Friday morning. (Antonio L. Colina IV/MindaNews)
