PHL has structures in place to welcome Rohingya refugees — Roque

The Philippines will be able to welcome Rohingya refugees due to structures in place as a result of the country's open-door policy, presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said.

"Hindi po problema 'yan. Dati nga meron tayong processing center sa Bataan... wala pong problema 'yan kung kinakailangang paratingin sila sa maraming numero, meron na po tayong istruktura, lugar kung saan sila dadalhin," Roque said in a press briefing in Tanauan, Leyte on Sunday.

President Rodrigo Duterte earlier said that he would be willing to accept Rohingya Muslim refugees fleeing "genocide" in Myanmar.

"I really pity the people there," Duterte said last Thursday. "I'm willing to accept refugees. Rohingyas, yes. I will help but we should split them with Europe."

Roque said that Duterte's statement is in line with the Philippines' open-door policy of welcoming refugees.

"Kung naalala niyo, 'yung mga Vietnamese refugees talagang tayo po ang naging processing zone," he said. "Halos lahat ng refugees na binigyan ng refugee status, dumaan muna sa Pilipinas. So it is in that kind of tradition that the President stated that we're willing to open our doors to Rohinga refugees."

In 1975, the Philippine government accommodated thousands of Vietnamese refugees who fled their country after the Vietnam War ended. The facility Roque cited, the Philippine Refugee Processing Center (PRPC) in Bataan, hosted many of them.

The United Nations and rights groups say some 700,000 people, most of them Rohingya, have fled from Myanmar into Bangladesh since August last year when Rohingya militant attacks on the security forces sparked a military crackdown.

The United Nations and several Western countries have said the Myanmar action constitutes ethnic cleansing, which Myanmar denies. It says its security forces have been conducting legitimate operations against "terrorists." — Anna Felicia Bajo/BM, GMA News