DFA urges Pinoys in Sabah standoff to leave peacefully

The Department of Foreign Affairs on Thursday renewed its appeal to a group of armed Filipinos holed up in a village in Sabah to leave the area peacefully to prevent armed confrontation with Malaysian authorities.

 

Followers of Sultan of Sulu Rajah Mudah Agbimuddin Kiram who are engaged in a nearly two week standoff with Malaysian forces crossed to Malaysian-controlled Sabah last week to reclaim their ancestral homeland. Malaysian forces have given the Filipinos 48 hours to withdraw.

 

“We are trying our best to urge the Filipinos who are in that place to consider withdrawing and doing this peacefully and expeditiously. That remains work in progress,” Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert del Rosario told reporters in an ambush interview.

 

He said the Philippines continues to work with the Malaysian government in facilitating the peaceful withdrawal of the Filipinos, who refused to leave until the Malaysian government heed their demand to re-open talks on unresolved claim of the sultanate on Sabah.

 

Del Rosario said President Aquino’s directive is to “do everything possible to try and urge them to peacefully withdraw and to do this as quickly as possible within the deadline that’s enforced.”

 

Sabah, located south of Mindanao, is territorially disputed by the Philippines and Malaysia. A Philippine claim for sovereignty over the island has laid dormant for decades, but Malaysia continues to pay a yearly rent to the heirs of Sultan of Sulu.

 

Every year, hundreds of Filipinos enter Sabah illegally through Mindanao in search of a better life.

 

Most of the undocumented Filipinos in Sabah hail from Basilan, Sulu, Tawi-Tawi, and other far-flung provinces in the south that are among the Philippines’ poorest and constantly plagued by war. — Michaela del Callar/RSJ, GMA News