Philippine ambassador to the United States, Jose Manuel “Babe” Romualdez speaks to a delegate of Filipino and Japanese reporters at Manila’s embassy in Washington, D.C. on May 27, 2025. INQUIRER.net/John Eric Mendoza
WASHINGTON — The United States has a right to deport any Filipino illegal immigrants, but the Philippine government will “definitely not” allow them to be brought to El Salvador or any third country.
Jose Manuel Romualdez, Philippine ambassador to the US, made this clear Tuesday (Wednesday in Manila) when asked of the matter.
This came after Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele agreed to house in its mega prison hundreds of migrants expelled by the US government.
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READ: Salvadoran Church leader to Bukele: Don’t turn country into US prison
While most of them are from Venezuela, Bukele previously offered to detain in their prisons US-deported immigrants from those countries that do not take their citizens back.
“I think it’s something that the Philippines, we Filipinos, will never allow something like that to happen to us,” Romualdez said of the El Salvador scenario in an interview with reporters at the Philippine Embassy here, adding that even dual citizens are covered by this.
“It’s just not in our DNA to allow that to happen,” he noted, saying illegal Filipinos who committed crimes should answer to the local laws. “We will accept any Filipino, no matter what their status is.”
With the Trump administration saying it’s exploring other third countries apart from El Salvador to house expelled migrants rejected by their own country, Romualdez said that Manila quickly informed Washington that it will take care of its own.
Romualdez said: “In fact, when there was talk about third countries, we immediately communicated our desire with the United States government that if there’s any Filipino that needs to be deported, we would like to be informed and we would be pleased to work with them in having them deported to the Philippines.”
According to the Department of Foreign Affairs, there are around two million Filipinos here, of whom there could be as much as 300,000 staying illegally.
Romualdez, however, believes that the number of Filipino illegals is “probably much less than that.”
“Filipinos will always, most Filipinos, that is, will always, especially those that have been here for many years, will find a way to be able to stay here,” he said.
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“And I think, more than ever now, this is a clear sign that, you know, the best way to always have a good night’s sleep is to always follow the legal path in anything that you do,” he went on. “The old Filipino style of palusutan (looking for workarounds) and everything like that … that’s the worst thing you can do because you think you can get away with something today, but you can’t get away with it forever.” /jpv
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