NBI on standoff: No plot; Misuari role to be probed

MANILA, Philippines—No conspiracy, no local political supporter and no financier.

“Based on an earlier investigation, the Kirams did not receive any political and financial support from politicians to initiate the Sabah standoff,” Virgilio Mendez, deputy director of the National Bureau of Investigation, told reporters Tuesday.

“We have not also established any conspiracy in Mindanao, but here in Manila it has yet to be established,” said Mendez, the NBI spokesman in the fact-finding committee formed to look into the events surrounding the standoff in Sabah. The panel includes representatives of the Philippine National Police.

Pastor “Boy” Saycon, a political operator who was questioned by the panel on Tuesday, denied he was involved in the sultan’s incursion into Sabah.

He told reporters that the supposed conspiracy was “fabricated” by the President’s communications secretary, Ricky Carandang.

“Instead of focusing attention on the people dying in Sabah, Carandang sold the conspiracy story to foreign media invited to Malacañang,” Saycon said.

He said foreign reporters talked to him about the meeting and was told Carandang named lawyer Oliver Lozano, detained former President and now Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, her former political adviser Norberto Gonzales and President Aquino’s uncle Peping Cojuangco among the conspirators.

Saycon, who walked with a cane and with his left eye bleeding due to an infection, talked to reporters as he emerged from a meeting with NBI officials yesterday morning.

Probing Misuari

Mendez said an investigation was continuing on the role of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) in the crisis.

“We are now investigating what is the exact role of MNLF head Nur Misuari in the crisis,” he said.

Mendez said the initial findings of the panel were based on interviews and intelligence gathering immediately after Sulu Sultan Jamalul Kiram III’s followers landed in Sabah last month.

A source who is also a part of the panel told the Inquirer on condition of anonymity that the sultan’s brother Agbimuddin Kiram was accompanied by 234 people when he landed in Sabah.

“Of the 234, eight were women, 10 from the sultan’s army and four MNLF soldiers on loan,” the source said.

Abuses in Sabah

The source said the presence of MNLF soldiers linked Misuari to the Sabah crisis.

He also said that even before Kiram’s group landed in Sabah, “Filipinos had continuously been maltreated by Malaysian security forces.”

“The maltreatment of the Tausugs by Malaysian police served as one of the triggers why the Kirams want to assert their ownership of Sabah and bring this to the United Nations,” the source explained.

Mendez also said the panel would no longer issue subpoenas to other personalities supposedly involved in the Sabah crisis.

Kirams also summoned

Saycon said he had been an adviser to the sultan for more than 15 years but that he was not informed about the “unilateral” incursion in Sabah.

“It’s a chance they took. I’m sorry they took the chance, but it’s there now. I am helping in crisis management, how to handle this,” he said.

Saycon said his advice to the Kirams was how to strengthen their claim to Sabah at the United Nations.

“We want to bring their claims to the United Nations,” he added.

Saycon also told reporters that the Kirams had received NBI summons to appear in its investigation but that the NBI agreed that the sultanate would instead be represented by Abraham Idjirani, its secretary general.

In his statement to the NBI, Saycon said his role as an adviser included doing research, data gathering and verifications, to strengthen the claim of the sultanate of Sulu “in accordance with the modes of amicable settlement as defined under the Manila Accord in 1963.”

‘Constructive dialogue’

Saycon said a “constructive dialogue” between Malaysia and the Kirams in coordination with the Department of Foreign Affairs was about to take place when the Malaysian security forces launched their attack against Kiram and his followers.

“Constructive dialogue was coined because the Malaysian government does not want to use the word negotiations,” Saycon explained. He also said that Brunei was chosen as site for the talks.

Saycon said Vice President Jejomar Binay in three meetings with Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario attempted but failed to arrange a dialogue between the Malaysian government and the Sultan.—With a report from Marlon Ramos