The Philippines as Haven for Refugees

Jewish Refugees in Manila

The Jewish people have suffered intense racial discrimination throughout their history. The anti-Semitic
movement in Europe grew unprecedented under Nazi Germany through the leadership of Adolf Hitler
leading to the 1938 event known as the Kristallnacht, which shocked the world, including the
Philippines. German Jews were denied one basic human right after another. These drew the European
Jews to seek asylum in other parts of the world .

The first influx of Jewish refugees seeking to escape the persecution of the Nazis came to Manila in
1934. The first opportunity to shelter a significant number of Jewish refugees was in 1937, when
Imperial Japanese forces attacked Shanghai, China. As a result, the German government offered all
Germans in Shanghai free passage to the Philippines. At the request of the German Consul in Manila,
President Manuel L. Quezon with U.S. High Commissioner Paul V. McNutt, authorized the admission of
the refugees on the condition that they would not become a public burden. They were to be supported
by their fellow nationals in the Philippines.

On September 8, 1937, the largest refugee group to have landed in the Philippines composed of ethnic
Germans and German Jews, arrived in Manila aboard the Norddeutscher Lloyd steamship, Gneisenau.
The Jewish Refugee Committee was formed to assume the task of providing for the refugees. On
February 15, 1939, President Quezon sent a message to Congress urging them to allow additional
German Jewish professionals in the country.

The Commonwealth Government, upon invitation of the United States, could not turn a deaf ear to the
sufferings of these unfortunate people. The Philippine Commonwealth, founded as it is upon justice and
righteousness and the preservation of essential human liberties, could not but view with sympathy the
opportunity to do its share in meeting the situation.

In the same statement, the Philippine government offered to open its doors to political refugees with
professional qualifications, particularly in the sciences. Thus, the government under President Quezon,
initially planned to resettle as many as 10,000 Jewish refugees in farming communities and other
sparsely populated lands in Mindanao. The plan would be of great advantage to the Philippines, as
refugees with sufficient training could develop new crops and help the Philippine economy. With the
help of Filipino farmers and competent agriculturists, the Jewish refugees would be able to support
themselves. Unfortunately, the plan never became a reality.

A May 1940 Philippine Free Press political cartoon by Esmeraldo Izon illustrates the scores of immigrants
that threatened to overwhelm the Philippines ability to absorb them.

In May 1939, as Jews in Manila tried to settle themselves, the Philippine Board of Medical Examiners
allowed several Jewish physicians to take the medical examination, and gain a professional medical
license in the country. This was further emphasized on August 1939 as an action by President Quezon,
which was motivated by broad humanitarian grounds.
As the Jewish situation worsened in Europe, in June 1939, another 750 Jews arrived in Manila and an
additional 933 German Jews arrived via S.S. St. Louis after they were denied to dock by the Cuban
government.

In May 1940, with the limits set by the U.S. State Department, Quezon signed Commonwealth Act 613
or The Philippine Immigration Act of 1940, which limited the number of refugees allowed by law to 500
individuals from each nation each year. This brought to fore several considerations: selection of
appropriate settlement for the refugees, training of the settlers, among others.

However, as emerging research on the Jewish refugees in Manila by Sharon Delmendo shows, the
Philippine Immigration Act of 1940 specifically included Special Provisions that provided President
Quezon with broad discretionary powers to admit aliens who are refugees for religious, political, or
racial reasons, in such classes of cases and under such conditions as he may prescribe. This provision
was enacted despite what seems to have been unease in the U.S. State Department and the National
Assembly; it remains part of the law up to this day as cited by the United Nations High Commissioner for
Refugees (UNHCR).

Thus, Manila continued to be a haven for Jewish refugees. President Quezon continued to authorize the
admission of approximately 1,000 Nazi-persecuted Jews. In addition, Quezon donated seven and a half
hectares of his country estate in Marikina as a working farm for the refugees. The Marikina Hall was
dedicated on April 23, 1940, and housed approximately forty Jewish refugees. At the inauguration of the
Marikina Hall, President Quezon expressed his sympathies to the refugees and assured the Filipino
people that there was no reason to fear economic dominance or monopoly of the Jews in the country.
President Quezon said:

It is my hope, and indeed my expectation, that the people of the Philippines will have in the future
every reason to be glad that when the time of need came, their country was willing to extend a hand of
welcome.

On June 21, 2009, the State of Israel honored the Philippines with the construction of the Open Doors
Monument, a geometric 7-meter sculpture, at the Rishon LeZion Memorial Park in Israel. The
monument, made of Romblon marble, commemorated the open door policy of the Philippines to the
Jewish refugees that saved more than a thousand Jews.

Spanish Republicans in the Philippines

During the Spanish Civil War from 1936 to 1939, droves of Spanish Republicans fled to the Philippines in
the hope of finding safe haven. They were fleeing the Spanish fascist Flanges led by General Francisco
Franco. When Franco was winning the final battles of the war in 1939, the civilians and the Republican
army were forced to flee towards the French border and to North Africa. The greatest of these refugee
movements mobilized in January and February 1939, when Barcelona fell to Francoist forces, dispersing
at least 500,000 Spanish Republican refugees.
In the Philippines, the government declared a policy of absolute neutrality in the conflict in Spain. In a
letter dated November 10, 1937, by President Manuel L. Quezon on the Spanish- Fascist Propaganda,
and in his speech dated December 23, 1938 at the San Juan de Letran, he stressed the need for
neutrality in the Spanish Civil War. At the turn of the 20th century, the Spanish community in the
country numbered to around ten thousand people. Among the most noteworthy refugees of the
Spanish Civil War were Benito Pabon, a Deputy of the Spanish Parliament, and Rafael Anton, a lawyer
who had taken part in the tribunal that condemned to death Jose Antonio Primo de Rivera. In addition,
Basque exiles were known to settle in Cebu, among them Saturnino Uriarte and Estanilao Garovilla.

Chinese Refugees in Luzon

In 1937, with the encroachment of the Imperial Japanese forces in mainland China, and the terrible
atrocities committed by Imperial Japanese forces upon the Chinese in the Rape of Nanjing, droves of
Chinese refugees fled to other parts of Southeast Asia seeking refuge. President Quezon issued
Proclamation No. 173 on August 21, 1937, enjoining government agencies in the City of Manila, City of
Baguio, the Province of Rizal, and the Mountain Province to extend aid to refugees especially Filipino
and American nationals in China who fled to the country. In 1940, with the Imperial Japanese expansion
undeterred, many residents of the then British colony of Hong Kong fled to the Philippines for safety.
The Philippines opened its doors once again to these refugees and gave them necessary aid, by virtue of
Proclamation No. 570, signed on July 1, 1940. The refugee crisis would continue until December 8, 1941,
the date the Japanese Empire invaded the Philippines.

White Russian Refugees in Samar

The victory of the Bolsheviks under Vladimir Lenin in 1922 in Russia marked the birth of the Union of
Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). As a result of persecution by the Bolshevik Red Army, supporters of the
Tsar and the Russian imperial court, called the White Russians, evacuated to neighboring European
countries, and some even fled to as far as Shanghai. But the pressure of the advance of the Chinese
communist army forced the White Russian community into a search for refuge.

In December 1948, President Elpidio Quirino offered temporary shelter to 8,000 evacuees in the former
naval base of Tubabao Island in Guiuan, Samar. In June, 1949, the Cabinet approved a four-month
extension of the stay of the refugees, allowing some to visit Manila.

On April 4, 1951, Frederick R. Thompson, chief of the International Refugee Organization (IRO) mission
in the Far East, paid a courtesy call on President Quirino to thank the Chief Executive for having offered
a refuge for the displaced persons in the camp at Tubabao Island. The President instructed acting Census
Director Alfredo Eugenio to preserve the centers buildings and other improvements made by the
International Refugee Organization of the United Nations, preparatory to the property acquisition by the
Philippine Government.
Indochinese (Vietnamese, Cambodians, Lao) Refugees in Bataan and Palawan

At the end of the Vietnam War, the Philippines once again opened its doors, this time to thousands of
Vietnamese refugees. In April 1975, during the advance of North Vietnamese forces on Saigon (now Ho
Chi Minh City), more than 5,000 Vietnamese were evacuated from the country. In the same year,
thousands of Cambodian refugees fleeing the Khmer Rouge killing fields, and the Vietnamese
occupation, came to the Philippines.

By 1976-1979 in Vietnam, discontent against the new communist government grew. Citizens of the
Socialist Republic of Vietnam were subjected to various policies. Many citizens were to be placed in re-
education camps, some urban dwellers faced resettlement programs in the countryside and private
enterprises were expropriated by the government. To add more to these challenges was the rising
conflict between Vietnam and China; Chinese forces attacked the Vietnamese borders on February,
1979. All these factors led to the fleeing of thousands of Vietnamese by boat throughout the
neighboring Southeast Asian countries.

Late 1979 to the early months of 1980 in Cambodia was a period of worsening food shortages; the
number of fleeing Cambodians increased drastically. Moreover, many Cambodians died via execution,
starvation, and illness. At the same time, the Vietnamese who occupied Cambodia and the Khmer
Rouge were still fighting, dispersing thousands of Cambodians, who sought asylum in Thailand and other
countries of first asylum such as the Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore, and Indonesia.

On May 14, 1979, to help to the Indochinese refugees staying in the country, the Philippine government
sought the assistance of the Food and Agriculture Organization headed by Director-General Edouard
Saouma.

On August 21, 1979, President Ferdinand E. Marcos issued Executive Order No. 554, which established a
task force on international refugee assistance and administration. This entity was created to build
refugee processing centers as well as to work with the United Nations High Commission for Refugees
(UNHCR) in giving aid to the refugees. It also designated Ulugan Bay and Tara Island in Palawan as initial
refugee processing centers and camps.

On January 21, 1980, the Philippine Refugee Processing Center was inaugurated in Morong, Bataan. This
institution served as a holding center for the refugees prior to their relocation and settlement in the
United States, Canada, France, Australia and in other countries. The facility, funded by the United
Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), also provided ESL (English as a Second Language)
classes and primary education programs.

From April, 1975 to August, 1982, more than 30,000 Indochinese refugees were sheltered via the efforts
of the Philippine government in cooperation with the international community. From 1994-1995, due to
the significant decrease of refugees, the Philippine Refugee Processing Center started its
decommissioning process by virtue of Memorandum Order No. 267. In its short history, the Philippine
Refugee Processing Center has provided food, shelter and education to about 400, 000 migrants.