Inside Philippine politics & beyond

Sobriety needed on all sides over Sabah conflict

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By Raissa Robles

Nothing is sure about any of the reports coming from the standoff in Sabah, but if they’re true, then people have already been killed as the Sultan’s armed band continues to defy both Malaysian and Philippine governments.

Along with many others — Filipinos, Malaysians and Sabahans — I believe the issue calls for sobriety.

I have just read a website, coconutsmanila.com, which says that two Philippine websites were recently defaced by hackers, apparently because of the Sabah issue.

Before we jump to conclusions that Malaysians are involved, let’s remember that there are other interest groups riding on the conflict for their own political purposes. It suits them to escalate the issue and cause instability in the south and trouble for the government.

My hubby Alan and I were talking about Sabah at breakfast time. He has written a lot more on Sabah than I have.

We were both wondering about two things:

FIRST, why is there such a large constituency in the Philippines for asserting Philippine sovereignty over Sabah? One Facebook group alone has over 10,000 “LIKES”. Supporters are Muslims and Christians alike.

SECOND, why has no Philippine President ever succeeded in dropping the Sabah claim?

Perhaps trying to meaningfully answer these questions will point to a way to resolve this issue that has been a huge thorn in relations between the Philippines and Malaysia.

I have more articles to write on Sabah. But first I need to write my Third Part on the Intellectual Property Code amendments. One amendment, in particular, SUCKS.

Here’s the link to coconutmanila.com

 

Comments

  1. There’s the Rub

    Utter waste

    By Conrado de Quiros
    Philippine Daily Inquirer
    12:25 am | Monday, March 11th, 2013

    Late last week, Nur Misuari took P-Noy to task for apparently mishandling the Sabah crisis.

    “What he has done is very bad. It is unbecoming of a head of state to be siding with the enemy of his own people. For what reason is he aligning this country with Malaysia, a colonial power occupying the land of our people? I am against that, totally against that with all my soul. I hope the President will be properly advised. I hope he will recant. Otherwise we won’t forgive him. And there is even an attempt to arrest the sultan. (If they) do that, the country will be in total chaos, I promise you.”

    Fighting words? No, merely pathetic ones. Merely deluded ones. As pathetic and deluded as the Kirams’ attempt to “reclaim” Sabah itself.

    Who is Nur Misuari? He is the one person who for decades led a struggle for the Muslim people of the Philippine south to be free. He is the one person who for decades affirmed the right of the Muslim people to self-determination. Which he attained in part with the grant of autonomy to the same Muslim Mindanao, an arrangement that gave him exceptional privileges he later forgot or abandoned—at least in the eyes of his fellow fighters, who later became the Moro Islamic Liberation Front—the very spirit of struggle.

    What is Sabah? Sabah is a huge piece of territory that once belonged to the Sultanate of Sulu by right of cession: It was given to it by the Sultanate of Brunei for services, or favors, rendered. For more than a century, the Sultanate of Sulu had nothing to do with it other than to receive nominal, or indeed token, rent from a British company. Meanwhile, over that period, the people of Sabah themselves, not unlike Misuari, waged a struggle for independence against the British. Over the same period, the people of Sabah themselves, which included Muslims—of which the Tausug are just a part—non-Muslims and Christians, strove to assert their right to determine their future, to carve their fate.

    They achieved that in 1963 when they gained self-rule. Later, they decided as a sovereign people to join the Federation of Malaya.

    What is the Kiram enterprise? It is an effort to free a people that are already free. It is an effort to impose sovereignty over a people that are already sovereign. It is an effort to void the history of struggle a people have waged by claiming an ancient, barely exercised, and thoroughly whimsical right of ownership over it.

    If Spain decided one fine day to reclaim the Philippines by right of conquest, overlooking the fact that it had already been colonized variously by the United States and the Japanese, indeed overlooking the fact that it had already become independent, it could not be more ridiculous. If a contingent of Spanish forces occupied a part of the Philippines demanding that its ancient rights over it be recognized, demanding completely seriously that the Philippine government sit down with it to discuss terms, it had come however armed in the spirit of peace and amicableness, it could not be more unhinged.

    Yet this is the thing Nur Misuari, the freedom fighter, supports. This is the thing Nur Misuari, the self-styled father of a people who have long proclaimed being orphans from him, champions. Which has stoked him to fury, calling Malaysia, which Sabah sees itself as belonging to, a colonial power; and not calling his favorite Tausug in Sulu, or in Manila, so, though armed only with colonial ambitions if not the power to prosecute it. Which has stoked him to fury, accusing his president of siding with the enemy and not himself of siding with stupidity.

    Do I feel for the loss of lives of the Kiram followers in Sabah? Yes. As of last count—though that depends on the ones doing the counting—a score or so of them have already died, from bombings and exchange of fire. Misuari is right at least in one respect: They are Filipinos too, and our hearts naturally go to them. Do I feel furious at the deaths of the Kiram followers in Sabah? Yes, but only at those who brought them to this pass, only at those who led them to this slaughter. Do I sympathize with the cause that brought them to their deaths? Not one bit.

    This is what makes the Kiram enterprise doubly tragic. If its cause was at least noble, their deaths would somehow be justified, their deaths would somehow be heroic. You would at least recall the scene from “The Last Samurai” where the handful of defenders, imagining themselves not unlike Leonidas’ 300, took a last stand, their laughter echoing in the wind. You would at least think of Che Guevara braving the wilds of Bolivia exporting his revolution to the arguably un-free and un-self-determined peasants there.

    This is nothing of the kind. This is not heroic, this is just miserable. It has no lofty intent, it has no noble aspiration, it has no grand ambition. It even has no sense. This is not a choice between the Philippines and Malaysia, this is not a choice between Filipinos and Malaysians. This is merely a choice between the people of Sabah and the Kirams, between true sovereignty and fickle colonial claims (oh yes, a grant by another sultanate is no more or less a colonial claim than colonial occupation), between sanity and madness.

    Who the hell cares if Musuari forgives anyone or not? Who the hell cares if Misuari promises a conflagration or not? The time when it would have mattered whether he forgave someone or not, like the time when it would have mattered whether the Kirams forgot Sabah or not, is long past. The time when his promises would have mattered, like the time when the Kirams’ claims would have mattered, is long gone. In their place merely loom like apparitions the faces of the dead in Sabah.

    And a horrendous oppression: Such utter, utter waste.

    SOURCE: opinion inquirer.net/48557/utter-waste

    • Sabah was nEVER under the British.

      It was rented by a BRITISH COMPANY which obtained a royal charter from the Queen.

      TWO VERY DIFFERENT THINGS!

      • Conrad is directing his philippics at the wrong person. At first the quest to reclaim Sabah by the Sultan of Sulu seems quixotic, but with thse lives lost, the reopening of ghe issues gave an opening to the Filipino side to be reexamined and exposed Malaysia’s weak argument and they are only propping up their landhrabbing by the non-discussions of the issues since the 60’s.

        A blogger’s worth is measured if he or she will set aside his/her blind loyalty to the personality, in this case the president, otherwise one will marginalized his/her credibility. Conrad keeps on defending PNoy’s obsequious remarks on the Sabah issue that Filipinos are starting to question PNoy’s common sense as a leader. He seems nit sophisticated enough to appear that he supports the Sultan’s claim yet also respects Makplaysia as a parter in the Mindanao’s peace process.

        Plenty of bloggers are caught in the trap of even brushing off our claims and even sided with Malaysia’s propaanda machine that Sabah is not a rented place.

        There will be no peace in Mindanao if we as a Nation don’t pursue ghe claims of the Sultan of Sulu to Sabah. This is a golden opportunity fir al, the factions from MNLF, MNLF, and the government to realize that Malaysia was the main funder and provider of logistics and traing to the Rebels and they were used to keep our government busy fighting among ourselves and we did not have time to see that Malaysia was the one pulling the string in what was happe ing in Mindanao.

        If these fighting factions realized the real culprit, then the prize is more than enough for al, the factions to share for their progress, pitixally and economically.

        You have to know that the Malaysians are thevasters of Wayang Kulit-shadow puppet show!

        • You’re certainly correct in saying that this bloody mess has called everybody’s attention to the problem — but in the worst possible way. I doubt if Malaysia will be so eager to come to terms favorable to the Sultan or to the Philippines for a long while.

          I heard that there are nine main factions, 32 different personalities, all receiving part of the cession fee, many claiming to the title of Sultan and to Sabah. So, which one are we supposed to support and/or cheer on?

          It’s true that the Malaysians have supported unrest in Mindanao for decades, and I really doubt this mess will make them think of stopping. What is your prescription for dealing with this? No president — not even the dictator Marcos — no army, no force has been able to keep the peace in Mindanao. You suggestion is to invade Sabah?

          If the Malaysians are masters of wayang kulit (though I think that’s indonesian), Filipinos are feared in SE Asia a masters of legalism, which is why I suppose they’re afraid to face us in court.

          Already you’re seeing the fruits of the Sultan’s adventure — Filipino refugees fleeing (back) to Mindanao. How do you propose to deal with this?

        • First we must recognize that when PNoy ignored the Sultan’s letter, which they conveniently justified that it was lost and now they found, weighed in the decision for the “incursion” aka suicide mission to Sabah and brought to attention in thevworst possible way. So don’t put the entire blame to the Sultan.

          Recognized that the Sultan is a desperate man and we know how desperate men behave. Misuari saw the opportunity and a cunning man will always takevadvantage of that. nur learned from his Wayang Kulit masters, and now the intern becomes the teacher.

          If you think deeper, there is a possibility that the differentbfactions in Mindanao band together to face a common enemy-Malaysia, so a possibility that is powerful and symbolic to the fractious Mindanao. Don’t invade Sabah, supoirt the Freedom Fighters continued inflictions of damages to KL, not Sabah. See my comments on another topic-Jamalul Kiram.

          In patalkel, the PNoys govt should pursue the help of the UN- He could show that once and for all he supports the constitution and not to fal, in the trap of doung nothing and seen as obsequious to Malaysia, and gain back the suppirt of the Filipinos who were dismayed of his attitude towards this issue by siding with Malaysia and nit as protectors of Filipino interests as well as the accused intruders.

          Filipino refugees are on of the costs of this pursuit. We should be aware that even before this incident, Nalaysua deports plenty of illegal Filipinos, so what is new is the increae in numbers and the atrocities and treatment these refugees suffered from the brutal Makaysian authorities. This will be Malaysia’s version of pogrom and we know what happenedvto the Nazis and genocide criminals if ever Malaysia does the unthinkable. These same refugees will be a willing recruit of the cause to reclaim Sabah, with the knowledge they acquired and knowing the tongue and culture, these new breed of Freedom Fighters will add to the headache or say migraine to Malaysias govt. So there is still a benefit to being expelked by Malaysja,it is to the Sultan’s gain as well as Nur’s. Usually their misery will be directed to the Malaysian authorites instead ofvtowards the Sultan. They both lost something and need to take back or need a payback.

          Conrad thinks that he is a cynosure when it comes to dispensing opinion, but a consistent of defending PNoy diminish his previous stature for he appears like a paid hack.

          At least Joe is not paid so I put joe a tad higher than Conrad. Joe’s unbending support to PNoy is painful spectacle for he must muster acrobatic mental dexterity to achieve convincing his readers tht his bias and presvription to our ills is the best available in the blogosphere.

        • Well-good luck. The Pnoy bully is finally meeting his match in Malaysia.malaysia knows the Phil government is useless and incompetent thus they can do what they want with the Filipinos in Sabah.nothing will stop them from killing our Filipino brothers. Valte can say all she want about unacceptable abuse – it will go on.so sad that the govt can’t protect it’s citizens. Hopefully prayers will help ….

        • @Myrna and @Parekoy… read our Constitution… We RENOUNCES WAR that is our Nation’s Policy… .. Ibang usapan na pag ang Malaysian ay lumusub na sa territory ng Pilipinas.. Hintay kayo… Kasalanan ni KIRAM, MISUARI at mga COPA ….kaya ganyan ang nangyari…sila dapat ang ikulung at magdusa ngayon.

        • I happen to think that, for someone who’s dancing on the edge of a precipice, Aquino has done a pretty good job. First, he’s managed to prevent Mindanao from going up in flames. Second, he hasn’t renounced the claim to Sabah. That’s a tough tinikling.

          It could still get a lot worse – refugees are already starting to arrive in Mindanao.

        • Perhaps you need to read this article, entitled “Is President Aquino an Idiot?” also in my roster of commentary:

          thesocietyofhonor(dot)blogspot(dot)com/2012/10/is-president-aquino-idiot(dot)html

          There is a difference between issue and the President. The President is an earnest, decent, capable man working in a complex job that touches us all. If we go about believing that he must make every decision EXACTLY as we would, or he is a bad president, that makes us unbelievabley arrogant. All we do is sit at a typewriter.

          He overseas some 20 departments with crucial decisions flying every which way. The notion that he must get them all correct means Filipinos will never be able to give of themselves in sufficent generosity to build a genuine community, a genuine, pluralistic nation. Because a nation has many different ideas and solutions, plus a few healthy mistakes, generally discovered in hindsight.

          Malaysia is behind the Philippines on the progression of modern democrateic values. Malaysia is an authoritarian state of the kind you might have under Enrile or Sotto or (gag) Binay. It sets democratic principles, and human rights, aside to exert power and control. Be thankful you live in the Philippines. Be thankful you have the President you have.

          Like, be a bit of patriot, eh? Extend yourself.

        • Joe,

          Maybe it is a challenge for you to criticize PNoy. When you project yourself as a know-it-all blogger, why not show us how to criticize PNoy, or maybe a part of your brain is only capable of extolling his greatness?

          Be intellectually honest for a change. You seems not different with the Anti-PNoys after all, you have to defend PNoy no matter what and them to destroy PNoy.

          Only then, I might consider you as a legit blogger!

          Parekoy

        • It’s not hard at all to criticize decisions or acts that I deem a mistake. I regularly rag on his failure to support FOI, as I did in his support of the libel provision of the Cybercrime law. But, indeed, I find it difficult to criticize a man because he has a personality different than you or Jesus, if he is earnest, honest, and smart. I respect the Office of the President and give the man in it every benefit of the doubt.

          But here’s an idea. Since I am such a lousy blogger, why don’t you take up the cudgel and start writing a proper blog yourself. Show me how it’s done. How easy it is to get it right for all your various readers.

        • One example how it is done legit is by appreciating this blog. For me, not my cup of tea owning a blog right now, but perhaps in the future. I did not say you write a lousy blog, I think it is decent but not yet legit. Your cadre will not tell you this, some are too dependent on your morsels that they begin acting like your pets, waiting for their master to feed them.

          Thankful for Aquino? Give me a break.

          I don’t go with personalities, they come and go. Look at the accomplishments, praise the admin when credit is due, criticize if offtrack. This way we are not coffled to the person.

          Avoid the trap of being labeled as pro or con, Faux and NBC adopted that model and CNN still reign. Unsolicited advice: Variety of position. Praise hard hit hard, then Perhaps I might join your Society and many more will come. You don’t even have to poach…

        • Ahahaha, okay, “my pets”! I’m afraid you have just insulted a lot of very bright, independent, free-thinking Filipinos, most of whom also contribute here at Raissa’s blog. You don’t need to join my society. You clearly don’t read it and you don’t “get it”.

        • @parekoy,
          “some are too dependent on your morsels that they begin acting like your pets, waiting for their master to feed them”
          Prrrrrt. Referee= Foul… he he he.
          Parekoy, off target and out of focus na. Can’t we stay on the merits and demerits of the subject/argument?

        • It’s very hard to support the Sultanate of Sulu claim without knowing who the “REAL” Sultan is. Another claimant says this;
          “KOTA KINABALU: Mohd Akjan Ali Muhammad, the businessman who controversially proclaimed himself as “Sultan of Sulu” two years ago, has resurfaced and this time he is urging Filipino Sabahans especially Suluks to pledge their loyalty to Malaysia.”
          Link on this to follow.

        • I am not a pro-PNoy or anything. In fact, I didn’t vote for him. But it takes guts to do what he has done, he has the big picture, remember?

          Now, let us consider what others are proposing by giving aid to Kiram’s followers and taking over Sabah militarily.

          No, that’s not going to happen… Why? Because you don’t have the military hardware and technology to battle the Malaysian’s mighty armada. You might have the men, but with what weapons do you have?

          My God, people, open your eyes… in going to war, you have to calculate what you have with what the others have, or you do a blitzkrieg, which I think we are not capable of doing right now, not with a pitiful military resources we have.

          In short, we have to shape up militarily first. ALL OF US.

          Look at history, it is littered with Filipinos who died because of military’s unpreparedness against its well armed, well trained enemies.

          Look at China, when did it flex its muscles? When it had a military that can confront even the US. What is it doing now? It’s doing what Japan is doing in WW 2, taking what it can take, but just in a different viewpoint.

          Filipinos first have to unite, make our country economically viable, the military component fully equipped, its citizens like the Israelis who train their citizens for battle so that when the time comes, they are combat ready.

          Then make the Kirams settle their differences, come up with one leader that is supported by ALL THE CLAIMANTS, not just a few. Go to the world body that handles border disputes.

          But you know what? This is all pipe dream. As long as Mindanao don’t get their act together, as long as our politicians is bickering, as long as politicians or public servants dip their hands into the public coffer as if it’s their own, as long as there is political dynasties that is pitted against each other, AS LONG AS FILIPINOS are pitted against FELLOW FILIPINOs by other external influences (other countries), nothing will come out of it.

          Philippine history will bear me out, it is littered with treachery, corruption, betrayal. Why? Because of what you think it is….

        • WELL EXPLAINED……… NO MORE NO LESS….. Let us RIDE with you…@transcriber…

  2. Lacierda details botched plan

    Presidential Spokesperson Edwin Lacierda on Friday spoke about the Aquino government’s botched move to send Ismael, who is based in Sulu, to Sabah. He said the government could not talk about the plan then because they initially wanted backdoor negotiations to end the standoff.

    If plans went well, Ismael would have flown to Malaysia on February 24. But Lacierda revealed that Sultan Jamalul Kiram III, in the end, stopped Ismael from going to Malaysia and cooperating with the government.

    “We tried to arrange [for] Ismael Kiram to go to Malaysia in order for them to speak to the Malaysian authorities. We were silent because the President was working on a peaceful resolution to this matter,” Lacierda told reporters on Friday.

    “When Ismael Kiram decided to agree that he will go to Malaysia, we provided an airplane for him to go to Malaysia. Unfortunately, Mr Jamalul Kiram rejected it. He said, ‘no, you can’t go to Malaysia’. And so, where are we now?,” Lacierda added.

    Lacierda said he is telling the story now that Ismael himself talked about the plan to a local TV station in Zamboanga. “We are laying it all out because for you to know that this government was not sleeping on this effort to resolve all these things, from the very start,” he added.

    READ THE COMPLETE ARTICLE AT:
    Kiram vs Kiram: Aquino’s botched move
    BY CARMELA FONBUENA
    POSTED ON 03/08/2013 7:00 PM | UPDATED 03/08/2013 7:49 PM

  3. INSIGHT | The Sabah claim: A tragedy rooted in ignoring history By: Joel C. Paredes, Special to InterAksyon.com
    March 8, 2013 12:47 AM

    EXCERPTS

    The Sultan’s proprietary right

    … historian Dr. Cesar Adib Majul found there were two versions of how the Sultanate of Sulu got its proprietary rights, if only to emphasize that the Sabah claim has always been a controversial one.

    In his book “Muslims in the Philippines,” Majul said that it was only in 1880 when British officials revealed to the English-speaking world that the “Sulus” were reported to have taken a major part in the civil war in Brunei.

    …

    However, historian Majul provides an interesting side story to this episode between the sultans of Brunei and Sulu. Majul said that there was another version on the role of the Sultanate of Sulu which appeared only in 1957, this time giving additional details, but reducing the role of the Sulu sultan and his warriors in helping Sultan Muaddin unseat Sultan ‘Abdul Mubin.’

    According to the second version, Muaddin’s offer greatly pleased the Sulu ruler who had always coveted the area. When he went to Sultan Abdul Mubin at Pulao Chermin and persuaded him that his mission was to bring peace among the warring parties, he got permission to pass into Brunei, for it will be recalled, Pulao Chermin guarded the entrance to Brunei.

    Once in Brunei, Sultan Muaddin and the Sulu leader decided on a three-pronged attack on Pulao Charmin, and it was agreed that the Sulu warriors would form one of the prongs.

    Majul said that per the second version, “the Bruneis did all the fighting with the Sulus merely watching.” That second account also reported that the Sulus “landed on the island only after the forces of Abdul Mubin had raised the flag of surrender.”

    …

    Wrote Majul, “It is understandable why the first of these Brunei versions would try to reduce the fighting role of Sulu warriors and why the second version should deny it entirely, and why contrary-wise, the Sulu traditions would assert that the Sulus (including Samals and Buranuns) did all, if not most, of the fighting. It was not only that parties would naturally try to get credit for the victory, but that Brunei pride and frustration were involved in reporting the incident.”

    Scholars also considered that the cession of Sabah took place in 1704, but Majul said that this information was probably traced to Alexander Dalrymple, who wrote that the cession took place “about the year 1704.”

    The decline of the sultanate

    The concessions were confirmed by Her Majesty’s Royal Charter in November 1881, and the British empire, though it did not own the territory, granted to the British North Borneo Co. the territory of the Sultan of Sulu. Quezon noted that the Sultan let this pass “under the threat of attack from British.”

    Further complicating the problem were the dynastic dissensions that besieged the sultanates of Sulu and Maguindanao, the two most powerful fiefdoms in the so-called Moroland. The colonial powers seized upon these splits.

    The death of Sultan Palalun in 1862 resulted in a toss-up between Jamalul Azam, son of Palalun and Datu Jamalul Kiram, a grandson of Sultan Shakirullah. Seeing the split, Spain issued a certificate of recognition to Kiram, denominating him the “feudal governor of Sulu and subject of Spain.”

    Again in 1884, Spain interfered in the power struggle between Ali Ud-Din and Amirul Kiram who were contesting the throne.

    …

    Political blunders?

    Some camps credit the late strongman Ferdinand Marcos with having tried to “infiltrate and destabilize” Sabah, in a decisive bid to finally regain it for Filipinos, but that bold strategy would end in tragedy when the Moro recruits being trained to land on Sabah were killed by their superiors as they mutinied, on what came to be known as the Jabidah massacre of 1967.

    Marcos’s predecessor Diosdado Macapagal also refused to recognize the Federation of Malaysia when North Borneo became one of its component states.

    The Philippines, along with Malaysia and Indonesia signed a policy statement agreeing to peacefully resolve the issue in 1963, and Macapagal reiterated that the government would withhold recognition of the federation until it gets formal assurances that Malaysia will uphold their agreement.

    Malaysia’s leader Tungku Abdul Rahman later agreed to elevate the dispute to the World Court. After that, the Philippines under Macapagal established formal diplomatic relations with Malaysia in 1964.

    Senate Majority Leader Ambrosio Padilla revealed on Feb. 1, 1968, a power of attorney executed by the heirs of the Sultan of Sulu in favor of Mr. Marcos, recognizing the authority of the President to represent them in the settlement of their proprietary rights over Sabah. But even if Mr. Marcos had projected his determination to reclaim Sabah, the late strongman was reported in recent accounts as having offered to drop the Philippine claim if Malaysia would deny Filipino Muslim secessionists access to Malaysia.

    In the book “Under the Crescent Moon: Rebellion in Mindanao,” journalists Maritess Danguilan Vitug and Glenda Gloria also wrote that “Malaysia took revenge a year after the Jabidah killings” by providing “succor to rebels from the secessionist MNLF, aiding them with arms and military training in Sabah.”

    For years, their account went, “Sabah was home to the MNLF.

    READ THE WHOLE ARTICLE AT
    INSIGHT | The Sabah claim: A tragedy rooted in ignoring history     – By: Joel C. Paredes, Special to InterAksyon.com
    March 8, 2013 12:47 AM

  4. Before, Malaysia is the GODFATHER OF MNLF that provided funding to its needs in many ways. Now with the peace negotiations between the government and the MILF being brokered by Malaysia, it is not surprising the MNLF is the leading supporters of the Sultan as the two of them ( MNLF and the Sultan) felt marginalized by this peace negotiations. i think the prime instigator is the MNLF as signified by thousands of them crossing the border of Sabah as fuelled by political opposition.

    Why and how did Malaysia become the broker between the govenrment and MILF? In the first instance, Malaysia has a massive vested interest in doing so, primarily the Sabah, wherein it did everything in its power to court everyone/ organization/ group to make bloody sure that Sabah is for its keep whatever the cost is. The Philippine government ,WITH NO INKLING ?, has been MANIPULATED by Malaysian government that played its political card game so ingeniously that at the end found itself in a very boiling water.

    When the Sultan put the law into its hand, there is no one to blame except themselves that things did not turn out the way they envision it. He made mistake when he invaded Sabah,
    ( in international scene that is invasion), then he made another mistake by staying put in Sabah and rejecting PNOY request to go back first to Philippine to talk and deal with the issue diplomatically. He also rejected the boarding of the ship sent by PNOY. PNOY did his best to appease the Sultan. IF THE SULTAN RETURNED TO THE PHILIPPINES AS PNOY REQUESTED, THINGS WOULD HAVE TURNED THE OTHER WAY, NO KILLINGS and much more to the way the Sultan wants it to be.

    We Filipinos do not want Philippines to be dragged into a war with Malaysia. We have so much into our plates already. Let the Sultan take the consequences of their actions.

    • he can’t even take the consequences of paying his own medical expenses, gobyerno natin ang sumasagot sa pambayad ng dialysis niya.

      • The Sultan doesn’t have an iota of gratitude to the Filipino people and the government for prolonging his life, let him repay all the medical expenses that he incurs for his dialysis so that he would realize we are his lifesaver.

        • @ letlet,

          Tama ka letlet, Gusto nang mga KIRAM ay SILA ang dapat sundin dahil akala nila sa hinihingan nila nang TULONG ay mga ALIPIN NILA na susunod na lamang…Ang Presidente na nang PILIPINAS ang nakikiusap na UMUWI na muna saka na pag-usapan ang Problema at nang Makagawa nang SOLUTION pero hindi nakinig kaya ganyan nangyari. Humihingi nang tulong pero hindi naman nakikinig puwede ba naman yon??? Dapat magbigayan para sa KAPAYAPAAN…

          Mali kasi ang ginawang paglusob sa SABAH lalo na at ARMADO at handang Mamatay daw? INVATION ang tawag doon at bawal sa international law at saka nakakahiya kong daanin sa Dahas, Tapang at ARMAS ang Kagustuhan???

        • Statement: The Presidential Spokesperson on the malicious representations by Jacel Kiram, March 6, 2013

          “Ms. Jacel Kiram’s use of a photograph which she claimed were of Malaysian casualties has led to the discovery by media that the photograph was not of Malaysian casualties in the Sabah standoff but of Thai military casualties in a 2007 incident that had nothing to do whatsoever with the standoff in Sabah.”

          Read the full statement: http://www.gov.ph/2013/03/06/statement-the-presidential-spokesperson-on-the-malicious-representations-of-jacel-kiram-march-6-2013/

      • @ Moonie,

        Abah, Totoo ba moonie na tayo pa nagbabayad nang dialysis ni KIRAM sa taguig at baka kasama na ang ibang mga gamot at hospital bills?

        So, that means may gumastos sa mga nagstandoff na mga KIRAM followers sa SABAH, Malaysia para magkaGULO?

        Saka bakit hindi sila nakinig kay Pnoy calls na UMUWI muna at nang mapag-usapan ang problema at makapagbalangkas nang magandang SOLUTION…

        • it was in abs-cbnnews.com, the prez made a statement. how could sultan kiram fund the immediate armed incursion into sabah daw, when his fund is low? two big boats ferried the royal army over there. lot of expenses that one. also mentioned in the news was the sultan’s dialysis na sagot daw ng gobyerno.

          it’s likely that people with money and vested interests are behind the sultan’s move. rumors in the south is that people are being paid $600 to join the sultan’s troops. that’s lot of incentive for poor people who will only be cannon fodder. maybe they’ll only be foot soldiers carrying arms, food and ammunitions for the sultan’s army. rumor is unconfirmed though.

  5. RM5300 is only cession monies. It not a rent. USA is still paying cession monies to Russia for Alaska. Kiram is just a pawn, he knew it. The real question is “Who is bank-rolling him?. kiram’s cause is an anomaly, while the MILF and MNLF are fighting for self-determination of Mindanao and Sulu from Philippine, he is still cowering in Manila wanting Philippine to claim a predominantly Muslim State of Sabah. His fore-bearers were the root cause of the Sulu problem, ceding Muslim territories to the christian and now he have non. Sultan Azimuddin the 1st who converted to Christianity has killed the sultanate system in Sulu. Non of a Murtard descendants could carry that title therefore all of the contemporary claimants are pretenders to the throne. There is a verse in the Quran that says ” Allah will make a race become obscure and fade into oblivion if HE choose to” That actually happening to the KIRAM, becomes obscure and fade into oblivion. Feel it Kiram. What kind of a ruler who send his kinsman to harm ways while sitting and gloating on his lofty throne. Only people like Saddam Hussien (Armed chair General) did that. KIram please repent.

  6. Foreign Jihadists to augment the embattled Royals.

    If true, Malaysia has got real trouble on its turf. What used to be a safe haven for the MNLFs in the 70s and 80s, may well become a turf war with their former sponsors with a different agenda – property rights of The Sultanate of Sulu.

    Jabidah has resurrected, and came back to life where it was once staged for “Oplan Merdeka”. This time right at the very contested soil called Sabah.

    Thousands of Tausug sailing to Sabah to aid beleaguered comrades – MNLF exec

    By Julie S. Alipala
    Inquirer Mindanao
    5:25 pm | Tuesday, March 5th, 2013

    ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines—Thousands of Tausug from Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi have sailed to Sabah to reinforce members of the so-called royal army of the sultanate of Sulu who are fighting it out with Malaysian security forces, a Moro National Liberation Front official said Tuesday.

    “We can no longer prevent our people. We are hurt and many of our people, even the non-combatants, are going to Sabah to help the sultanate,” Habib Hashim Mudjahab, chair of the MNLF’s Islamic Council Committee, told the Philippine Daily Inquirer by phone.

    Mudjahab said at least 10,000 Tausug from Basilan, Sulu, Tawi-Tawi and Zamboanga on Monday night started to reinforce the followers of Sultan Jamalul Kiram III now holed up in a coastal village in Sabah via the Philippines’ so-called “southern backdoor,” a route regular traders are familiar with.

    He said the reinforcements “sailed in small numbers so they can easily penetrate Sabah unnoticed.”

    “The naval blockade is of no use; our military should have known that. We did that before at the height of Marcos regime. We can easily go to Sabah and blend with the people there,” he added. He was referring to a naval blockade thrown up by the Philippine Navy and Coast Guard to ensure armed sympathizers do not joined the beleaguered men in Sabah as reinforcements.

    Days ago, Mudjahab said, he advised several MNLF commanders against going to Sabah to help a group of about 200 men who landed in a coastal village in Lahad Datu on Feb. 9 to assert the sultanate’s claim to Sabah. They engaged Malaysian authorities in a standoff that has resulted in a series of skirmishes since last Friday. At least 27 people, including eight Malaysians have been reported killed in the violence. The Malaysian Air Force is reported to have dropped bombs Tuesday on the Filipinos’ suspected lair.

    “I told them to hold on to their ranks and avoid getting emotionally affected with the situation. But our President Noynoy (President Benigno Aquino III) kept issuing statements favoring the Malaysians, which made our people agitated. The President must realize that for the Tausugs, being pushed to the wall, fighting for a cause, is dying with victory,” he said.

    He said with three old heirs of the Sultanate, “who have no history of rebellion, living quietly on their own, now leading the cause in Sabah, is something great for the Tausugs.”

    “It is about pride and honor, and our people are ready to sacrifice,” Mudjahab said.

    Ajil Jaffar, 50, an oil palm plantation worker in Kota Kinabalu and who was among those repatriated to the country on Sunday, said he wanted to return to Sabah.

    “I want to help them. It’s our honor to be with the sultan so that this deportation and abuses will stop,” he said.

    A retired educator in Tawi-Tawi, who asked not to be identified by name, said the sultanate of Sulu represents an extension of their rich heritage. “They are the first Filipinos. The sultanate of Sulu was already there even before Philippines existed,” he said.

    Amirah Lidasan of the nongovernmental group Suara Bangsamoro said the status of the sultanate of Sulu was unfinished business that “keeps on nagging us.”

    “We have a bloody history of Moro people getting killed while defending the homeland. It also speaks of the Philippine government’s giving in to the interest of foreigners instead of its citizens,” Lidasan said.

    • Who is giving in to the interest of the foreigners instead of it’s citizens? How can PNOY negotiate officially when the armed Sultanete groups intruded to sovereign country/parts of Malaysia?

      Lidasan wanted us to talk to Malaysia while they were inside a foreign territory ? How can PNOY do that? They want us to go to war with them ? Why? That was the true color of our Muslim Brothers in Sulu archipelago…..they were above the LAW when not properly address or recognized. Walang batas batas sa kanila basta ang kanila ay lupa nila ang Sabah… At gusto na nilang kunin…

      • Apparently many of them still live according to the law of the jungle..

        Even among themselves they can not unite as one. Who really is the Sultan of Sulu?

        Before they dictate, impose and hold to ransom the country’s foreign relations with its ASEAN neighbor, they must sort out amongst themselves who their official Sultan is.

        Otherwise, they all stand to loose everything they so dearly aspire for.

        Known as the 1939 Macaskie Judgment, the nine principal heirs of Sultan Jamalul Kiram II were Datu Punjungan Kiram, Datu Esmail Kiram, Dayang Dayang Piandao Kiram, Dayang Dayang Sitti Rada Kiram, Princess Tarhata Kiram, Princess Sakinur-In Kiram, Dayang Dayang Putli Jahara Kiram, Dayang Dayang Sitti Mariam Kiram and Mora Napsa.

        Source: globalnation inquirer net/65303/what-went-before-sultan-of-sulus-9-principal-heirs

    • we live in the present, not in the past. our ancestors are long gone. we honor them but let us not commit the same mistakes they have done. let us not become extenstion of bloody tradition that had not help them. modern problems need modern solutions. demographics are changing. let us not let our children pay for the sins of the past.

      • Hey Nur Misuari, did you read this?

        This comment suits you.

        It’s time for you and your battle-scarred MNLF henchmen to give way to rational and intelligent Moros.

        It would have been better if you faded away and retired in your nook quietly.

        It’s high time for the younger generation or Ahlams and Tausugs, who yearns for peace, prosperity and unity amongst their elders, kin, like-moros and countrymen to live in amity and harness the natural riches of their land and develop the talents of their people.

        Sultan Ahlams’ younger generation of descendants has a better chance of negotiating rationally with the PH gov’t and Malaysia.

        Hey Nur, you don’t have credibility whatsoever!

        Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) founding chairman Nur Misuari on Tuesday lambasted President Aquino for his alleged mishandling of the Sabah conflict and warned any attempt to arrest Sulu Sultan Jamalul Kiram III would plunge the country in “total chaos.”

        Source: globalnation inquirer net/67063/misuari-warns-aquino-of-total-chaos

        • Erratum, take 2 ($hit)

          It’s high time for the younger generation or of Ahlams and Tausugs…

  7. This is 100% off-topic…why is media showing ‘blacks and whites’ cardinals to be ‘next’ pope? No ‘brown Filipino’? Tagle? 90 millions less 3 millions =87 million Filipino Catholics, practicing or non-practicing, but just the same Catholics!

    Isn’t time the pope is a FILIPINO? Yes! 2000+ Years the Roman Catholic Church should now be headed by a one of own. Kami na naman! Always a ‘white one, why not a BROWN ONE?

    What’s the good reason the ‘news’ is focused on African blacks? Then again back to ‘White’ either European or what white? Before any ‘black’ brown first!

    This is the ‘election’ we should all VOTE [ if only we can] for ONE FILIPINO as Pope!

    His Em. Tagle is young, robust and very qualified. No more relic pope at least. One who is already 70s above is too much candle-odor, body odor, already!

    What say us?

    • @Leona

      First of all where did you get the number 90 million Catholics in the Philippines?? If there are 100 million Filipinos and if you use the previous estimate of religious affiliation in the Philippines there are only 80% professed Roman Catholics, so at the very least 80% of 100 million is = 80 million Catholic Filipinos (practicing or non-practicing).

      Second why not Tagle? Well you must consider that the Vatican also plays politics since it is a sovereign state. The Cardinals in effect are MP’s of the Roman Catholic hierarchy and in any government politics are omnipresent in choosing the next leader. Since the Second Vatican Council, there is a conflict between the minority liberal leaning Cardinals (mostly in Latin America) and the majority conservative bloc of Europe, the US, and Africa. One of the prospective Popes hails from Black Africa (Nigeria) and accordingly is staunchly conservative so you must expect that the conservative bloc will vote for him (with the good PR to be earned by electing a black Pope since the middle ages).

      Third you have stated the very reason why Tagle will be not nominated or the very most lose heavily if ever nominated, it is his relative age. Tagle has not yet proven himself to the establishment to their satisfaction that he is staunchly conservative and being recently appointed Cardinal he still has to prove his mettle if ever to be considered as a strong candidate to become the next Pope (as what I pointed out above conservatives form the majority bloc). The Cardinals also do not want to elect a young Pope that might become a threat to the conservatism of the Church and they cannot force their mistake out unless he resigns, dies or is murdered.

      I hope I have explained or given insight on why politics inside the Roman Catholic Church dampens the eligibility of Cardinal Tagle of being the first Filipino Pope presiding on the Holy Week at St. Peter’s Basilica.

      • Just vote [ if we can] for Tagle! If he’s not yet experienced, when? When he’s 70 years old too? What’s he going to do now, keep on looking at the four walls of the church every day until they collapsed? How old was Pietro or Peter when he headed the Church? Do you know also? My guess is: when he was in his 50s as he kept going out to the sea in his boat to go hauling that heavy net to catch fish and push that boat away from the shore!

        Do you have any idea why a pope is always more in old age? Because less young cardinals are taken in and these ‘youngsters’ always have to ‘wait’ until they get old to be a candidate for pope.

        I am not really sure where I got the ‘number’ of Filipinos. Can you help me how many there are really now? Every minute we increase at the same time decrease but keep increasing at most.

        Not electing a young cardinal because he might be a threat is conservatism of the Church is one of the many foolishness of the old cardinals. Peter in his 50s [ if I’m correct] was also a threat [ he was as he denied Christ 3X] but yet he was CHOSEN. Why? Because he was a rock…pietro for leadership. A relic pope always has more risks for disasters and has good reasons to ‘resign’ like what happened now. A young, robust and healthy pope at 50s will resign?

        I gave it in a general ideal way only to your questions. Catching you to pump up for exactness is surprising.

        But it is possible Cardinal Tagle can be the pope. You don’t believe it is your opinion. I just want to sound off though how I believe it. My opinion too. I believe God is ‘a politician’ too! Do you believe or not? Tell me why HE is not.

        Yes, I know all about what you are trying to tell me. I am not yet out of it as of now. Thanks my friend @DaveofBacolod.

        • Just one last…I like, and who don’t, to see a young, robust and energetic pope who will last ’til the last rainfall. Not a wrinkled candidate who looks near the grave to be interred!

          The Church need fresh and young sunlight not dark clouds ahead or darkness! Old popes causes more divisions and loss of faith of it’s followers. That’s what is happening now.

          Thanks again @Dave…

        • Well the RC has always been antagonistic against liberalization and modernization so we must not really be surprised why they choose older and more conservative Cardinals. It is really more of internal Church politic rather than the bodily politic of the entire Catholicism. If the Church followed the will of their constituents, the Church should have modernized or at most liberalized some of its archaic policies.

          Even if the matters are of grave importance to the Faith of the billions of faithful, the solemn College of Cardinals is still decided by human beings who are more or less the same with the average laity since they too can be subjected to biases and prejudice. Sure we can be idealists in the sense that the possibility of Tagle being elected is there but the pragmatic and realistic answer is that because of politics within the Church the chance is remote at best.

          The Philippines can arguably be the most important Catholic majority country in Asia, with East Timor as the other one, but if you see the general picture Asia will never be a Catholic or even Christian influenced continent in the near or even far future so that the possibility of having Cardinals sympathetic to an Asian Cardinal is remote. As we say in politics, numbers do count and the reality is that numbers tend to skew towards the largely white and secular but traditionally conservative bastion of Catholic Europe.

          Regarding the number of Filipinos, I just used the last population estimate circa 2010 and the percentage of ethnicity is more or less accurate.

          Don’t worry I am also in favor of younger Popes but the establishment has already cemented their preference of older Popes, maybe a fatigue of John Paul II since he did reign for nearly 30 years. If only the laity can have the voice to elect Cardinals, wishful thinking hehehe

        • there’s no such thing as “inexperienced” when it comes to Papacy. even an ordinary citizen can be voted, and become the Pope if he accepts.

  8. CAN WE DO A CROWDSOURCE ON NORBERTO GONZALES?

    The former national security adviser/ defense sec of GMA is well connected in Mindanao, hiding out there in the past when the PDSP (Partido Sosyalista ng Pilipinas) was into violent subversive activities in the 80s (?) .

    • Ill add another name: Romeo Intengan. These two names could provide a clue why all this is happening in Sabah.

        • Together with Norberto Gonzales, they co founded the PDSP. They are well versed in Mindanao politics, having lived and hid there many years. Both of them served in GMA’s circle of advisers. They are staunchly anti communist. They had advised GMA how to handle the extreme left.

          Intengan is a Jesuit, and a doctor and served the MNLF before as a physician.

          Google the rest. They are two creepy guys.

        • I found this at ndfp.net

          Intengan and Gonzales like to call themselves social-democrats. But in truth they are nothing more than clerico-fascists in the mode of Franco’s Falangists in Spain.

          They are hypocrites who love to talk about freedom and democracy but are so intolerant of the views of others, are facile in telling lies and fabricating stories, and have no qualms in getting innocent civilians killed. They are devoid of principles except for their pathological fear and hatred of communism. A simple reading of the program of the so-called Partido Demokratiko Sosyalista ng Pilipinas (PDSP) would reveal their moral bankruptcy which fits perfectly well in the corrupt, cruel and immoral Arroyo regime.

  9. Here’s a “sobering” read from a Malaysian historian who proclaims himself as a “committed Southeast Asian-ist and a committed ASEAN-ist”. It’s interesting.

    “We Southeast Asians also happen to be living in the present-day postcolonial world of ASEAN, made up of nation-states that do what nation-states do: Compartmentalize, categorize, delimit and demarcate, fix boundaries and police them.
    I have to state here that I am not a big fan of the postcolonial nation-state for the simple reason that in my opinion the post-colonial nation-state is simply the inheritor of the proclivities, bias, myopia and solipsism of the colonial state of the past.
    Look around us in Southeast Asia today and what do we see, but postcolonial nation-states that continue to police their people, their borders, their identities and the very epistemology and vocabulary that frames our understanding of ourselves and the Other. Categories like “citizen” and “foreigner” are modern labels that we, Southeast Asians, have inherited from our colonial past along with dubious concepts like racial difference.”

    http://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/opinion/2013/03/05/between-a-fluid-region-and-a-hard-state/

  10. The Tausugs from Sulu and Tawi-Tawi were never subjugated by the Spaniards, Americans and “Filipinos”. And they never considered themselves “Filipinos” before and now. But Tausugs and “Filipinos” are brother Malays.

    I mean that “Filipinos” (derived from King Felipe or Philips) are those who were the subjects before of the Spaniards and then the Americans and given independence in 1946. Needless to say, Tausugs were always a free people but only collaborated with the “Filipinos” latter for practical reasons. For centuries they have their homeland consisting of the Sulu Archipelago and Sabah or North Borneo. But the British and Malaysians hijacked Sabah from them since half a century before.

    So, it is NOW proper and fitting that we, the “Filipinos”, allow them to secede and determine their own destiny through an independent State. Moreover, we should help them as brother Malays in convincing Malaysia to allow the people of Sabah, if they so wished, to join and become citizens of an independent State together with the Tausugs.

    Of course there are non-Malays in Sabah as well as in the Sulu Archipelago, and they should be allowed to remain with their property intact and to participate in governance of the New State. I surmise that the current leadership in the localities are qualified to govern the new political entity after an election under the auspices of UN.

    • I’ve been following your commentary and pondering things. I don’t think a new state is required as long as both Malaysia and the Philippines progress as democratic states sensitive to human rights and multi-ethnic underpinnings. Then native “Malay” descendants can thrive either place, much as europeans thrive both in Europe and America and many other places. Asians, too, come to think about it, as I look at Vancouver, Canada, and Los Angeles. The ability to “let go” of the bindings of history is important, whilst preserving the lessons and memories. Rather like we ought not try to relive our photo albums. That’s the best way to progress and deal with the cross-cultural mixings of our shrinking, eroding, warming planet.

      • But for centuries our Muslim brothers at Sulu archipelago does not follow the Rule of Law’s when circumstances are going harder and needed most .

        Is it not unfair for us who were paying taxes and custom duties regularly while they in that area are not ?

        If we are former followers of Father Balweg of the CPLA command ,who were not incorporated to the mainstream of our society nor to the AFP , so we are allowed to join to the New People’s Army and continue fighting the democratic government of the Philippines because it will be the best way to progress and deal with the cross -cultural mixings of our shrinking , eroding , warming planet……?

        Malaysia and the Pilippines were both sensitive to HUMAN RIGHTs , but KIRAMs action now going to Sabah armed and many , showing to the whole world that it was only a PICNIC , …now that so many chain reactions happened like displacing the inhabitant thereat , do you think Human Rights was not yet violated SIR ?

        • Have you seen how the Burman of USA and two Filipinos who were Abu Sayaf’s captives from Dos Palmas ,Palawan BEHEADED at SULU ARCHIPELAGO within their TURFs the Kirams and the MNLF ? Did they do something sir? NONE….

          It is very easy to say anything when you don’t have an actual experience with the TAUSUG’S …. Few years back , my friend of mine’s wife was BEHEADED while sleeping in a Kumpit with his son who luckily survived the massacre in a congested place of banca’s with passengers also resting , After a long day of purchases of DAING na ISDA with a slightly higher price than their Muslim counterpart who initiated the BEHEADINGs . They escape and went further to Jolo and the crime never reach the court nor the criminals were apprehended to DATE….

        • Oh, for sure, human rights have been violated and Muslims have been treated poorly and not welcomed into the mainstream. Sometimes they have contributed to the reasons for exclusion (like most people have a severe aversion to kidnappings or losing their heads or bombs in the mall). That was true of Blacks in America only 50 years ago. They did not have to secede to right the wrong.

          I believe President Aquino has successfully been the architect of a peace agreement in Mindanao because he understands the solution is economic, and political/cultural, not religious. And is prepared to invest in building a more robust economy in southwest Mindanao.

          Give people real opportunity, instead of endless despair, and there is no need for fighting.

          I also think one should not be tied to history. One should learn from it, and break free from it.

        • Blacks were different in USA , you made them your slaves and they don’t own USA neither… For centuries you had utilized the black’s for anything and everything and they don’t go on kidnappings and BEHEADINGs Americans .

          The TAUSUG’S , everything were given to them by our Government but were not satisfied with your palm, they want hands, your head and everything …. So self determination is the answer Sir.

        • Self Determination is a progress for the Tauasug’s sir.

          And a progress for the remaining Filipinos , except to those FEW Elite’s who keep on stirring the problems in Sulu Area.

          We don’t need to fight and they don’t need to fight also. Just give them Independence and let those Filipino Bilionaires who for centuries were benefited while the trouble in Mindanao are going on.. Very Few of them who have to sacrifice their wealths….

        • Well, you undoubtedly know a lot more about it than I do. I only generalize on a couple of principles, not to be bound or biased by history, and the need for a lawful framework for rules to be imposed and criminals brought to justice. The entire Philippines operates strangely to me, with the trade of favors being dominant in hiring, rather than productivity and competence, and setting a cultural oundation for the acceptance of corruptions big and small, soft and hard. The Mindanao peace agreement is a starting point, and what transpries after that is up to the players. I’d simply let the agreement play out, not start amending and adjusting and making exceptions.

        • Yes sir , I agree that peace talk between MILF and the RP was a good star for all of us Filipinos , like the first peace talk between MNLF and the RP where afterwards those who feels not properly recognized formed the MILF.

          Now that MILF turns to have that new peace talk ,,, the Sultan of Sulu whose followers and heirs “kuno” belongs to MNLF factions feels not properly consulted or recognized by the new treaty, … They armed themselves ( kalokohan nila ….. They were always armed evrsince ) and proceed to had a PICNIC in Sabah and they were calling us now Filipinos to join with their fight because it was a sovereign fight of the Filipinos ” DAW “, ngee he he …… we pray for the immediate peaceful solution of the problem and if ever manalo sana sila sa giyera nila against Malaysia ,,,pero AFP with PNOY going to small war with Malaysia ” kalokohan na iyan ” Sir.

          Self Determination is the best solution for them.

    • That’s a very sensitive idea with great repercussions/consequences.

      Do you know what would happen to the native Hawaiians if they also get such idea? They were ‘occupied without referendum’ by US Marines and annexed to the USA. They too had their own homeland and a monarchy.

      Things, after a long time, cannot just be easily thought of like that. It’s like extracting all one’s good teeth just to replace them with what? You can’t chew ’em all!

      Only God can ‘change the face of the earth.’ Amen.

        • @Victin Luz…’rocking the boat’ may not cause it to immediately sink but ‘drilling holes’ on it will.

          I’m sure Malaysia will not commit genocide in this matter. But for sure there will be ‘collateral damage’ as some misguided elements ‘drilled holes’ on the boat.

          That’s what going to possibly happen. But I always hope not.

        • Leona @20.2

          Malaysia has started dropping cluster bombs that could wipe out a whole village right away. The Americans used cluster bombs in Vietnam.

        • Iraq, too, both wars. They kill people, as do many tools of war. I was trained by the US army to use my bare hands to kill. Not to mention guns, knives, bayonets, grenades and cannons. Also how to withstand torture and sit all night in a hole. When people come into your land with illegal guns and aren’t open to reason, then you tend to want them out real bad. One way or another.

      • Leona @20.2

        No colonial power ever conquered nor subjugated the Tausugs despite the former’s vast superiority in weapons. Even the Philippine government could not enforce its laws in Tausugs’ territory. In 1911, the Americans developed a handgun specifically for use against the Moros. That was the caliber .45 pistol.

        The last time I heard, the Hawaians accepted and embraced tightly their “fate” as citizens of the 50th member of the US of A. In my youth I also heard many kababayans longing to have the Philippines as another State of the US of A – to no avail.

  12. President Aquino’s insensibility to the plight of our Tausug brothers is really saddening. His acrimonious pronouncements, denouncing the desperate and seemingly last-ditch efforts of the Sultan of Sulu and the Tausug people to reclaim and get back what is rightfully theirs, abet the Malaysians to continuously hold on illegally to Sabah, which belongs to the legitimate owner and lessor, the Sultan of Sulu. The Sultan’s brother and the Tausug men and women went to Sabah not to wage war, but to stay and live peacefully in the land, which, by ancestral rights and by law, they own.

    What aggravates the situation is the fact that the President of our country has publicly taken sides with Malaysia, the detestable transgressor; thereby betraying and abandoning his own aggrieved countrymen, the Sultan and the Tausugs. Not only history, but also legal documents bolster the Sultan’s claim over Sabah. If only the Philippine government would hear out the case of the Sultan’s and provide adequate and proper assistance to enable the latter obtain a just and peaceful resolution of the Sabah issue, then all the vitriolic threats from the President, the undue apprehensions and tensions, and the violence that ensued, which was sparked and triggered solely by the formidable Malaysian police and military, could have been avoided, without diminishing President Aquino’s image and stature among the incredulous Filipino people, who are understandably shocked by his callous and arrogant treatment of their fellow Filipinos.

    Thanks to the oil and gas, the mineral resources, and the vast, fertile land of Sabah, Malaysia is now a rich, developed, progressive, and powerful country, while the Sultan of Sulu and the Tausugs are powerless and poor and have only the Philippine government to turn to for help in order to get the much-deserved justice that has eluded them over so many, many decades. Yet even their own government has forsaken them, apparently very wary and fearful of antagonizing Malaysia and straining a very flimsy, precarious, and unpredictable relationship, which can never be relied upon as the geopolitical interests and realities undergo incessant developments, shifts, and realignments in our ever changing world.

    Mr. President, you cannot defy and defeat the truth even with your firm, deplorable resolve to appease and never displease Malaysia. Your staunch allies are the Filipino people. You should confine and maintain your loyalty to your countrymen and to truth and justice, and not to Malaysia, whose allegiance would never ever lie with you and the Philippines. The ASEAN will remain basically the same should Sabah be returned eventually, by an Act of God, to its rightful owners.

    • ” The Sultan’s brother and the Tausug men and women went to Sabah not to wage war, but to stay and live peacefully in the land, which, by ancestral rights and by law, they own. ”
      We always have a lot of people wanting to stay and live peacefully in our country – but these people brought their passports while this so called Sultan’s brother and his people brought an army with weapons and occupied a village and instilled fear into the local population.
      What if Malaysians landed in Phillipines with weapons and refused to response to any of your country’s appeal to either surrender or go back to Malaysia?
      Its not rocket science to know that once a visitor carries a weapon, refuses to explain and handover the weapon while threatening everyone – something has to be done.
      This so called Sultan’s brother refused..I repeat REFUSED to response in kind to the many appeals and datelines and we lost our men in the process.
      So..let this be a gentle warning to Nur Misuari and his MNLF…and anyone else… do not play with fire unless you know how to manage it.
      A true leader will think about HIS people and not think about what HE wants!
      Now even innnocent filipinos working in Sabah are feeling unwanted simply because a stupid unroyalty dealy behaviour of a so called Sultan’s brotehr and his followers!

    • @ MahalinAngInangBayan,

      Bakit Mo Sisihin ang Pangulo NoyNoy? Ang suldado nang sultanate of SULO ay pumunta sa SABAH, Malaysia na mga armado nang ARMAS sa illegal na paraan nang walang pahintulot at PInakiusapan na nang Pangulong Aquino na UMUWI na muna sila para pag usapan ang problema pero hindi nila pinansin at binigyan na sila nang ultimatum nang MALAYSIA na UMUWI na muna pero hindi rin nakinig kaya sila ang dapat sisihin sa nangyari..Ayaw nila makinig sa pakiusap nang Malaysia at ni Pnoy dahil gusto nila ay sila lang ang sundin? Kaya nagkaganito?

      Saka mayroon nagpapa GULO na mga PULITIKONG mayroon Pan Sariling Pakinabang at KASAKIMAN….DAHIL SA PERA AT KAPANGYARIHAN….

  14. Arroyo pledges to help Sabah claimants
    Tuesday, 24 September, 2002, 12:00am
    Raissa Robles in Manila

    During the lunch, Mrs Arroyo learned that the special power-of-attorney granted by the sultanate to the Philippine government to pursue the sovereignty rights over Sabah expired in 1982.

    (From SCMP; web page cited next…)

        • Walang anuman, @raissa.

          Ngayon na ba nais ni gloria na tupdin ang kaniyang sumpang tutulungan ang mga kaanak ni Jamalul Kiram III???

        • Baycas, Raissa @16.1

          NOON, sabi daw ni Gloria na tutulungan niya, sabi ni Gonzales. NGAYON, sabi ni Gonzales hindi niya tinutulungan si Kiram. Baka si Gloria mismo ang tumutulong habang nakakulong.

        • Former president GMA should ‘mind’ her pending criminal cases and not this Sabah problem now. Nine (9) long years she hadn’t batted really her eyes to do much on it. She focused only more to get more the money, etc.

          This Sabah problem is out of her hands.

        • wow, an old incarcerated lady with a bad neck and back and without cellfone in her spacious detention room can sure plot this whole brouhaha ….

          gma blaming is getting old.

          must be straw grasping time.

        • @Jett Rink,

          Obviously you didn’t get the joke while I got a :lol: from @raissa.

          But, point is, Malaysia will just repeat what she said in the ICJ link I supplied in the Know-thy-Enemy comment I gave.

          Overcoming Malaysia’s arguments will persuade the Court to side with the Philippines, that is, if this Philippine Sabah claim will get to see the light of day in the ICJ.

          I pray and hope, still, that the ICJ will eventually settle the issue.

          However, the burnt documents (according to Prof. Harry Roque) which provided us without proof of our claim and the contemporary International Law thinking that self-determination (UN-sanctioned Sabahan referendum in 1963) negates even true historical claims are legal hurdles the Philippines must contend with.

          Again, pragmatism versus idealism is pitted against each other.

          I believe Tita Cory and former DFA head Raul Manglapus already saw the “equation” before in their decision to drop the Sabah claim. The HOR then realized it too. The Senate then, I believe, was the stumbling block…

          Letting the Sabah claim, that the present Constitution allows, remain in the back burner…much the same way as the fate of the constitutionally-provided anti-political dynasty…