Fearing further alleged abuses that might be committed by Malaysian authorities against evacuees from Sabah, a daughter of the Sultan of Sulu Jamalul Kiram III has asked the help of the Public Attorney’s Office to assist Filipinos who were prevented from leaving.
She fears for her life and that of her family here in Sabah. But if she goes back to Tawi-Tawi, they will have nothing, too—not a house, not a job, perhaps not a future.
Independent Malaysian online news provider Malaysiakini has claimed that Malaysian journalists covering the Sabah crisis in Lahad Datu were ordered by the Sabah minister on Monday to always refer to the armed followers of the sultan of Sulu as “terrorists.”
More than 400 individuals from Sabah have been stranded on Taganak Island (Turtle Island) in Tawi-Tawi province since Saturday night, waiting to be rescued by the government, a Philippine Navy official said on Sunday.
Former President Fidel V. Ramos on Wednesday stressed he never abandoned the Philippine claim to Sabah and urged President Aquino and Sulu Sultan Jamalul Kiram III to meet face to face to discuss how to end the standoff in the Malaysian state.
Malaysian Defense Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi on Wednesday confirmed the recovery of the bodies of 13 “terrorists” following Tuesday’s air strikes and artillery against armed followers of Sulu Sultan Jamalul Kiram III holed up in an encampment in Lahad Datu in Sabah.
The local governments in Western Mindanao and in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao are getting ready for the Filipinos who might be repatriated to the country as a result of the fighting in Sabah.
Sulu Sultan Jamalul Kiram III said his brother, Rajah Muda Agbimuddin Kiram, is alive and unharmed despite the heavy air and ground assault launched by Malaysian forces in Lahad Datu, Sabah on Tuesday.
Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz on Tuesday clarified that the deportation of almost 300 Filipinos from Sabah was not in any way connected to the conflict there between the Malaysian authorities and followers of Sulu Sultan Jamalul Kiram III.
Despite the potential threat to the peace process in Mindanao that it supports, the United States is staying away from the Sabah crisis, as it is a problem that only the leaders of the Philippines and Malaysia can deal with.
The followers of Sulu Sultan Jamalul Kiram III holed up in Lahad Datu town in Sabah refused to leave despite the Friday deadline set by Malaysia.
