Former MNLF commander with three wives wishes to be M’sian citizen

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KOTA KINABALU: A former commander with Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) with three wives and 13 children desires to be a Malaysian citizen and has no wish to return home to Basilan in the southern Philippines.

Even though Abdul Halil Aranial is aware of the change that has happened there, he said he would only travel there to visit relatives.

Abdul Halil told the Royal Commission of Inquiry that he fled Basilan in 1975 with six other MNLF leaders. They traveled by speed boat and ended up in Jampiras, Sandakan.

“We were running out of ammunition and food so we decided to go and seek help from neighbouring Islamic countries to support our cause,” he said.

They resided in Jampiras until 1980 before relocating to the refugee settlement in Kamping Air in Sandakan, he said, adding that he was employed in an oil palm plantation there until his relocation to the Muslim Refugee Settlement in Keningau in 1993.

That same year, the settlement named Minsupala was shifted to Nabawan as the land in Keningau was being developed.

Abdul Halil told the panel that in 1990 he applied for and obtained the IMM13 pass and used it for 19 years until 2009 when he applied for the Entry Permit and later in the same year applied for Permanent Residence, which was approved. He received his MyPR the same year.

Asked by conducting Officer Jamil Ariffin whether he planned to apply for anything else, he replied, “I hope the government would expedite the application process for Malaysian citizenship.

Abdul Halil also told the panel that his three wives and 13 children are all holders of MyPR.