By Roel Pareño (The Philippine Star) | Updated February 16, 2013 - 12:00am
“However,
they were rounded up by the Malaysian security forces because close to
100 of them were armed,” Hashim said, citing reports he received from
the field. He
said there were more than 200 Filipino Muslims involved in the
standoff. He stressed the armed men were not detained but were merely
invited for questioning. He
said the group was sent back to Tawi-Tawi “after hours of negotiation.”
It was not clear as of press time if the group had indeed left the
secluded coastal village of Lahad Datu some 500 kilometers from Kota
Kinabalu.
A
ranking military official said MNLF chairman Nur Misuari orchestrated
the standoff to attract the attention of the Philippine government and
the international community. “It
has something to do with Misuari’s continuing claim of Sabah being part
of the Philippines. Misuari just wants to show off. The MNLF may have
forged a peace agreement with the government but Misuari has not given
up on his claim of Sabah,” the military official who declined to be
named said.
He said the so-called Royal Sultanate Army began to recruit members in the early 2000s. “The
following years they never gave the Philippine government any problem
until this standoff in Sabah. The Royal Sulu Sultanate Army has been
behaving well since then, until they went to Lahad Datu and declared
they have the right to stay in Sabah,” the source said. The source also linked the Sabah standoff to MNLF’s attacks on Abu Sayyaf strongholds in Patikul, Sulu.
“It
was even what we call in the military an acoustic war as no bodies of
the dead turned up but only sounds of weapons being fired,” The STAR
source said.He said Misuari attempted to seek refuge in Sabah after his men launched attacks in Zamboanga City. “But
always the Malaysian government turned him over to the Philippine
government,” the source said. “That is why Misuari would always be
bitter against Malaysia.” Foreign
affairs officials said they were informed by Malaysian Foreign Minister
Anifah Aman yesterday morning of the ongoing negotiations with the
armed men, who identified themselves as members of the “royal army” of
the Sultanate of Sulu.
In
a press briefing, deputy presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte said
they were still verifying information regarding the standoff. She said
that contrary to allegations by Malaysian authorities, the Filipinos
were not armed based on information from the Department of National
Defense. “We
are trying to ascertain the facts that are attendant to the story. The
Philippine embassy in Malaysia had already dispatched our police attaché
to that particular area to see what’s happening and we continue to
monitor the situation,” Valte said. She
also said the Philippine government is ready to extend whatever legal
or humanitarian assistance those involved in the standoff might require.
“As
a general rule, it is the duty of the government to help extend
assistance to any Filipino abroad, wherever they may be. At this point,
however, we would like to ascertain the facts first,” she said. The
Philippines has a standing claim on Sabah, which is part of the
Sultanate of Sulu leased to the British North Borneo Co. in 1878. In
1963, Britain transferred control of Sabah to Malaysia. The Sultanate
of Sulu protested the handover, saying it was a violation of the Sabah
Lease agreement of 1878.
‘Decolonization’
The
arrival of the armed group was a prelude to the filing of a petition
before the United Nations for the “decolonization” of Sabah by the
Sultanate of Sulu, a lawyer with links to the sultanate said. He
said the sultanate should first show proof that it is occupying the
territory in question before filing a UN petition to reclaim it. “The
Sultanate of Sulu wants to file their petition next month when the
50-year lease of the British government on the island expires,” he said. “I
believe the presence of the Sultanate royal army is to bolster their
claim that they have already re-occupied their ancestral land,” he said.
He said Malaysian authorities may have them arrested but such action may only confirm their physical presence in the territory. The
Bureau of Immigration (BI), for its part, said it was trying to
determine if the Filipinos involved in the standoff passed through the
bureau’s three border crossing stations in Bongao, Tawi-Tawi. “I
will still have to check with our Immigration Regulation Division if
there were any reports forwarded to them regarding this information,”
said BI spokesperson Ma. Antonette Mangrobang. Mangrobang
raised the possibility that the Filipinos had reached Sabah on
speedboats. Sabah is less than an hour from Mindanao by speedboat.
If
they had used a speedboat, Mangrobang said they might have departed
from any part of the country’s long coastline and not necessarily from
an international seaport. If
such was the case, “we would not be able to monitor because our borders
in the southern backdoor are so porous. The only international port in
the area is in Zamboanga,” she said.
Don’t create trouble
Cagayan
de Oro City Rep. Rufus Rodriguez, for his part, urged the Filipinos
involved in the standoff not to start trouble in the territory. “They
should not create trouble. They should not give Malaysia the impression
that they are rocking the boat in Sabah. The Malaysians have been our
friends. In fact, they have been helping us resolve the problem of
Muslim separatism in the south,” he said. Rodriguez,
president of the Christian Democratic Party, said Malaysia hosted the
series of talks between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation
Front that led to the recent signing in Malacañang of a historic
framework agreement for peace in Mindanao.
He
said the armed men who claim to be part of the royal army of the
Sultanate of Sulu should resolve their problem peacefully with the
authorities in Sabah. Rodriguez,
one of the authors of the Philippine Baselines Law enacted in 2009,
said Congress did not include Sabah in the definition of the country’s
territory in such law “due to the fact that Malaysia is occupying it.”
“We
have to accept the reality that Malaysia rules Sabah, though we have a
dormant claim to the island. We would have elicited protest from
Malaysia against our baselines law had we included Sabah in our
territory. Besides, our law would not have complied with UNCLOS (United
Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea),” he said. He
said only the disputed Spratlys group of islets off Palawan and Panatag
(Scarborough) Shoal near Zambales were treated as “regime of islands”
that belongs to the Philippines. “The United Nations and the international community have accepted our baselines law,” he added.
‘Arrest them’
For
the chairman of the House committee on national defense and security,
Philippine authorities should apprehend the still unidentified Filipino
armed men as soon as they return to the country. Muntinlupa
City Rep. Rodolfo Biazon said that while the identities of the armed
men or their affiliations were not yet clear, he said he was inclined to
believe that they were militants fleeing government security forces in
Mindanao.
“The
government should be really, really interested in the identity, status
and nature of these armed men, and if our authorities conclude that
their existence constitute a threat, and their activities and weapons
illegal, then our security forces should take the appropriate action
against them,” Biazon told The STAR. – With Paolo Romero, Jess Diaz, Evelyn Macairan, Edith Regalado, Perseus Echeminada, Cecille Suerte Felipe Hat tip: Lt Col Idris Hassan
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