THE Mindanao Development Authority (MinDA) is planning to recommend the establishment of a Consular Office in Sabah, Malaysia's capital, Kota Kinabalu, in order to serve as refuge for overseas Filipino workers especially those who are still undocumented.

The agency's secretary, Abul Khayr Alonto, said that there are still about 800,000 undocumented Filipinos who are working in the Malaysian state, which is closer to Philippine territory through Tawi-Tawi and southernmost islands of Palawan by just hundreds of kilometers away.

"I've been into a hotel, from cooks to the managers who are all Filipinos. I asked one, who is from Pagadian City, she has two children already graduates in college who are also working there (in Sabah). But they could not just simply leave," he said.

Alonto noted that there are issues concerning the Sabah's "rightful" jurisdiction between the Philippines and Malaysia. But he underscores the importance of the Filipinos' current welfare there.

"That is why we plan to put it in Kota Kinabalu, that place is not part of the (Philippines') claim on Sabah," he said.

Sabah, or the North Borneo, has been in dispute by two countries since 1870s. It was said that the Sultanate of Sulu originally owned the region, but residents voted its inclusion when Malaysia became a free country from British government and became a federal government in 1963.