By Macon Ramos-Araneta
A three-week standoff that led to a shootout in Sabah, Malaysia, between Malaysian police and the Filipino followers of the Sultan of Sulu, in which 14 people were killed, had exposed the inefficiencies and subservient nature of the Aquino administration, an senatorial candidate said on Friday.
Dick Gordon of the United Nationalist Alliance criticized the government’s handling of the Sabah occupation by Filipinos as “severely woeful, anti-Filipino and subservient to Malaysia.”
He said the government sent wrong signals to the Malaysian government when it portrayed the Filipinos pursuing the Sulu Sultanate’s claim on Sabah as common criminals because “it is the president’s duty to protect its citizens everywhere.”
About 200 followers of the Sultan of Sulu Jamalula Kiram, led by his brother Agbimuddin Kiram, occupied Lahad Datu on February 12 to claim the territory as part of their ancestral land. They ignored appeals from President Aquino and the Malaysian government to leave and return to the Philippines.
Reports of casualties were unclear when Malaysian police assaulted the encamped Filipinos, but Malaysian police said 14 people were killed. Ten Filipinos surrendered and the others fled, according to the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA).
Gordon questioned the manner that the DFA handled the situation because it should have been at the forefront instead of allowing President Aquino to make comments on the issues.
“Should not our ambassador to Malaysia been the one at the frontline? Or the DFA?” Gordon asked. “And what about our intelligence officials? How is it that no one even knew that a large number of Filipinos was headed to Sabah?”
He said the situation could have been more carefully handled by foreign affairs officials, “but clearly foreign policy and crisis management have not been the strong suit of this administration.”
“The Malaysians were allowed to think by our own authorities that Filipinos are expendable,” Gordon said.
As the shootout was being broadcast by radio and television in Manila, Abraham Idjarani, spokesman of Sultan Kiram, lashed out at Malacanang for declaring that the early morning gunshots were mere warning shots by the Malaysian police.
“I don’t know why our government is siding with the Malaysians. They should also talk to us. We are in communication with Rajah Muda. Who are they going to believe? Us or the Malaysians?” Idjarani said.
“In a battle like this and based on the number of casualties, it means they (the Filipinos) were unaware. There were no warning shots whatsoever,” Idjarani said.
Interior and Local Government Secretary Manuel Roxas said the Kirams should have listened when President Aquino appealed on their followers to leave Sabah after Malaysia accepted a Philippine proposal to extend the first deadline for their departure.
“Malinaw na malinaw. With all due respect sa pamilya Kiram, malinaw ang plano ng gobyerno. Matagal na sinasabi ng gobyerno na pauwiin na natin ang ating mga kababayan dun. Eh, matigas ang ulo,” Roxas said.
Sen. Francis Escudero said the country’s interest should be detached from the private claim of the Sultan of Sulu because the issue could affect the good relations between Malaysia and the Philippines.
But the incident could open an opportunity for the Philippines to inquire about the welfare of 800,000 Filipinos living in Malaysia, including those who were born and raised in Sabah but are now considered stateless.
“The welfare of our countrymen who consider Sabah as their homeland should be the focus of the government’s negotiations with the Malaysian government,” Escudero said.
But UNA senatorial candidate Ernesto Maceda blamed the government and said it was responsible for the loss of lives because it “hesitated and vacillated on the issue, encouraging the Malaysian authorities to take armed action against the badly outnumbered Filipinos.”
Maceda, a former senate president and ex-ambassador to the United States, said the Philippine government must now take a strong stand in claiming ownership of Sabah and to extend full support to our Muslim brothers in the area.
“It (Philippine claim to Sabah) has been neglected and sleeping for a long time. It’s time to act to regain what is rightfully ours,” Maceda said. “Renewed government efforts is the only way to stop the followers of the Sultan of Sulu from taking up arms and invading Sabah to press their claim.”
Maceda said the Philippines should now consider bringing the country’s claim to Sabah to the United Nations.
But Sen. Miriam Santiago said important issues about the Sabah claim should first be clarified before the Philippines start any posturing on the issue because it was not known if the Sultan of Sulu “intends to turn over ownership and governance to our national government or whether he is claiming it for himself.”
“If he is turning it to himself, then he should be left to his own resources, and he should not galvanize our government into a military posture against the Malaysian government, which so far has been friendly to us,” Santiago said.
Santiago said the Sultan never sought the approval of the DFA and he can’t use the name of the Philippine government and besides the Aquino administration appeared not at all hospitable to the claim of the Sultan because “even we are not fully acquainted with the claims.”
“We don’t want to aggravate our neighbor who is offering good offices to solve our Mindano problem,” Santiago said.
“We don’t want to take any step that could be interpreted as an act of aggression or provocation. In diplomacy, we have to be extremely careful with our language. And that is what the country is doing,” she said. With Gigi Muñoz-David
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