We do not even oppose handing over portions of Mindanao to our fellow countrymen or Muslim brothers in Mindanao, be they MNLF, MILF, BIFF, BIFM, MIM, or to whoever among OUR people BUT -- and this is a big but -- what we feel strongly about is doing it to serve Malaysia interests to the detriment of our own national peace, law and order in Mindanao, economic development in the South and above all, to the detriment of our national honour.
The Filipino people know full well that Malaysia began fermenting trouble in Mindanao by proxy immediately after the Philippines' Operation Merdeka, the failed physical attempt to recover Sabah in 1968. Malaysia efforts to sabotage stability in Mindanao have continued to this day, under different disguises perhaps but are aimed at distabilising Muslim Mindanao just the same. Generations of Mindanaoans know that Malaysia formed, trained, nurtured, funded secessionist groups right in Sabah. Malaysia objective: To keep the Philippines busy so that the country and its succeeding administrators could not turn around to re-claim Sabah.
Today, despite the change in Malaysia tactics, i.e., playing the 'goodies', engineering a peace deal, photo ops with GPH's Marvic Leonen and Teresita Deles, etc., their objective has not changed. On the pretext of being the loving 'big brother' peacenickers, Malaysia's bottom aim is to force us to accept the Sabah claim death warrant that they have been trying to serve us these last 4 decades and to bury our sovereignty claim to Sabah with finality. And we are absolutely certain that our Government today is aware that this is Malaysia's true motive. President Aquino cannot claim ignorance of Malaysia motives -- he has possession of intel reports on his desk on everything that has happened and continues to happen in Mindanao.
Question today: Should President Aquino's Government now officially accept to kill our Sabah claim in the name of "true peace" which, in reality, is appeasement by another name?
If national Government's true objective is peace overall, we recommend that President Aquino address the issue once and for all. You don't have to have a PhD in political science or in history to understand that the Sabah sovereignty issue with Malaysia will continue to be the key factor in the determination of our brothers in Mindanao to secede from the Republic to join Sabah, potentially under Malaysia umbrella.
We therefore insist that if President Aquino is serious about this 'peace deal' with the MILF (too bad he's done it without the MNLF and the others) -- and not merely to gain political "pogi" points, he must not shirk from the task of doing what is genuinely good for the people of Mindanao: have the courage to either tell the Malaysians "to bugger off" or to tell the nation that we are formally renouncing our sovereignty claim to Sabah.
By Anne de Bretagne
For the Philippine Sabah Claim Forum
16 October 2012
A MUST READ: Undertanding our Failures
By Teo Calasanz
Unsung hero, Operation Merdeka
For the Philippine Sabah Claim Forum
15 October 2012
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