MANILA, Feb. 14 -- The Philippine Embassy in Kuala Lumpur is targeting to register around 550,000 "stateless" Filipinos in Sabah, and eventually provide them with services available to Filipino citizens, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said Tuesday night.

There are about 770,000 Filipinos in Sabah, 550,000 of whom are undocumented, DFA Undersecretary Eduardo Jose de Vega said.

"The embassy provides no timeline. It is an ongoing project that will take years. We do not have a permanent office in Sabah," he said in a text message.

De Vega noted that most of these undocumented nationals lack identification documents deterring them from birth registration.

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