Anger over the deaths of illegal migrants expelled from Malaysia boiled over yesterday and threatened to drag Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo into a deepening regional row.
As the death toll among child deportees from Sabah state was reported to have risen to 13, callers swamped Manila's radio stations with protests. The children were reported to have died in overcrowded holding camps or on the sea trip home.
About 1,500 Filipinos - among the 60,000 ordered to leave under an anti-immigration crackdown - sailed home from Borneo yesterday as protests erupted in Manila.
Activists burned pictures of Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad and burned the Malaysian flag in response to reports of the child deaths - blamed on malnutrition and dehydration.
Deaths among Indonesian workers expelled under the same crackdown by Kuala Lumpur are reported to have risen to 24. They are said to have died of illnesses in a makeshift Indonesian border camp on the island of Nununak.
Mrs Arroyo yesterday mingled with the latest batch of Filipino deportees, offering sympathy as they arrived aboard a Philippine navy ship on the remote southern island of Bongao after a night-long trip from Sabah.