Aquino doesn't want to look soft
The Philippine Foreign Ministry
yesterday reissued a 2008 circular reminding the country's government agencies
not to refer to the North Borneo state of Sabah as a part of Malaysia.
The claim isn't likely to sit
well in Kuala Lumpur, which is considerably irritated by the invasion of
Sabah's Lahad Datu township by 200-odd followers of the Sultan of Sulu, who
crossed the strait between Sabah and the Philippine island of Tawi Tawi on Feb.
9 in an attempt to assert the sultan's ancestral claim to the state.
Although the Philippines has
always maintained historical and legal rights over the Malaysian state, it has
remained in Malaysian hands since it was known as British North Borneo.
After a couple of weeks of
indecision, Malaysian security forces assaulted the Filipino group on March 1
with jet fighters and armored personnel carriers. The Malaysians say they
killed 62 of the Sultan's men and that 10 police and soldiers have died in the
fighting while arresting more than 100 Filipinos on suspicion of having links
to the sultan's group.
President Benigno S. Aquino has
been criticized for not doing enough to end the crisis peacefully, stating that
negotiations are the answer to the crisis, not open warfare as he attempts to
walk a careful line between trying to keep a leash on the Sultan's followers
while not giving into nationalist sentiment.
Thousands of Filipinos have lived
in Sabah for decades. Hundreds have since fled back across the strait in an
effort to escape the fighting and roundups by Malaysian security forces. The
Philippine government has sought to quell the invasion, arresting 38 fleeing
members of the sultan's followers last week as they sought to re-enter the
Philippines. The government later filed criminal charges against the group in a
court in Tawi Tawi.
Department of Foreign Affairs
spokesman Raul Hernandez said the presidential palace issued the memo in 2008,
titled "Guidelines on Matters Pertaining to North Borneo (SABAH),"
cautioning government agencies against making any statements implying
recognition of a foreign state's sovereignty over Sabah, which was described as
a Philippine territory.
The circular provides that
"No department, agency, or instrumentality of the Philippine government
shall make any act or statement expressing or implying, directly or indirectly,
any recognition of a foreign state's sovereignty over North Borneo (Sabah) or non-recognition
of Philippine title or historical and legal rights to the same."
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