THE 72nd Independence Day of the Republic of Indonesia had a greater significance to a number of Indonesians in Mindanao as it was on this day when they also celebrated their citizenship.
"We have more than 8,000 Indonesia descent living in Mindanao. They've been here for long, long time ago, they've been here without documents," said Indonesian Consul General Berlian Napitupulu during last Thursday's celebration at the Consulate General in Ecoland Subdivision, Matina, Davao City.
"So, the two governments under UNCHR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees) agreed in 2014 to solve this and we formed a mission, so we've been working out and collecting up to now around 5,208 documents and out of these we identified 2,425 clearly Indonesian, and 2,012 clearly Filipino, 279 mixed, because they are children," he added.
The children are given dual citizenship until they are 18 years old, when they will have to choose which citizenship they want.
During the Independence Day celebration ten representatives were handed their certificates of citizenship, representing the thousands of others.
Among them was Arlene Lambaihang Kaletuang who was born on December 3, 1975 to Indonesian parents in Glan, Sarangani. Her parents were Sangil.
She said that his ancestors have been living in Mindanao for so long now, they could no longer trace how many generations ago that was.
Keltuang could only say that it was difficult when they still did not know their citizenship.
"Sa una, wala pa man gisulti na Indonesian 'mi, wala pud nisulti na Filipino 'mi (Before, we were not told that we were Indonesian, we were not also told that we were Filipino)," she said.
It was confusing and difficult. Thus, she is very happy that she now has a citizenship.
Living as farmers, the effect of having no nationality could not really be felt since they are not seeking employment and the local public schools are allowing them to enroll, anyway, in recognition of the situation.
But others who have been reached by the joint mission to grant citizenship have admitted to having poor access to employment, livelihood, and higher education opportunities.
Undocumented Indonesians are living in 28 places all over Mindanao starting from Davao City southward toward Sarangani and the Sarangani Islands.