A rebel commander from the Philippines who is now a permanent  Malaysian resident said today he and six other commanders and officers from the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) entered Sabah in 1975.

Testifying before the royal commission of inquiry on immigrants in Sabah, Abdul Khalil Arani, who is also known as 'komander janggut' (bearded commander), said his group arrived in Sandakan, Sabah, from Mindanao in an MNLF motorboat.

"We had run out of bullets and food and we wanted to find help from a fellow Muslim nation," Khalil told the inquiry today, in reference to the civil conflict between the government of then-president Ferdinand Marcos and the Muslim population of southern Philippines.

However, Abdul Khalil said the people in the group were forced to work as labourers at a refugee camp in Sandakan to survive.

He stayed there until 1980, at which point the group separated and he moved to a number of  refugee settlements, before settling down at Keningau in 1993.

In 1990, Abdul Khalil applied for and received the IMM13, a document which allowed refugees to work and move around legally in Sabah.

He subsequently applied for an entry permit with the Immigration Department in 2004, and finally a red identity card to become a permanent resident in 2009.

“If possible, I would like my documentation as a Malaysian citizen to be sped up,” said the husband of three Filipino wives and 13 children, all of whom hold red identity cards.

Abdul Khalil, who is now village chief of the Minsupala (Mindanao-Sulu-Palawan) refugee settlement, said there are some 350 of his kinsmen there and estimates some 3,000 of them across Sabah’s interiors, many of whom are plantation workers.

“We initially had about 200 houses in the village but now there are only 45 because of a fire. We have written to the chief minister for help but there has been no response,” he said.

The village, he said, is managed by the Sabah Chief Minister’s Department and the Special Federal Task Force.

'We want a republic'

Asked by commissioner Herman Luping about the recent peace deal mediated by Malaysia that would see southern Philippines being given autonomy, he replied that they did not want autonomy.

“We want independence for Southern Minsupala as the Bangsa Moro Republic,” he said.

Abdul Khalil added that he if he were given the opportunity, he would like to aid in this cause but would not take up arms again.

“I still have interest, but I am old now, I want to rest,” he said.

While he hoped to one day to return to Mindanao to see his relatives, Abdul Khalil said he hopes to become a Malaysian citizen.