Sabah RCI: Filipino becomes M'sian after taking up Muslim name

A Filipino-born Christian became a Malaysian citizen after he was given a Muslim name by his father's friend to smoothen the documentation processes, the royal commission of inquiry (RCI) into immigrants in Sabah heard today.

Shafee Mohd Yusof, whose original name was Johnny Amules, told the commission that a man named Mohd Yusof "adopted" him and his two other siblings when he was 9-years-old.

This enabled him to obtain a late birth certificate even though he was not born in Sabah, and was subsequently accorded a MyKad.

Shafee arrived illegally, without any documentation, with his stepfather, mother, a sister and a brother from Phillipines when he was six.

Ram Anand