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Saturday, 29 June 2013

Can a 'President' Bong Bong Marcos in 2016 take Sabah back? His friends and supporters think so

The success of the next president with regard to Sabah will be hinging on President Aquiino's actions on Sabah today. Either he is a patriot or not. If he is not a patriot, then the next president will need all the luck he can have to take Sabah back...



Supporters of Marcos for president in 2016 believe that unlike Philippines' President Aquino today who has been seen as weakling (using a polite term) and a puppet of Malaysia's Prime Minister Najib, Bong-Bong Marcos (Ferdinand Marcos Jr) will have the courage to press on and re-take Sabah.


From Anne de B, one of the founders of the Sabah Clain Society and the Philippine Sabah Claim Forum, on whether Bong Bong Marcos, if he is elected president, could take back Sabah:
A Bong-Bong Marcos presidency does not guarantee the return of Sabah. No future president can achieve that unless current dispensation paves the way. In order to ensure the likelihood of getting Kuala Lumpur to negotiate with us firmly (during BBM's tenure if he becomes president) the current dispensation must do everything within the next three years to pressure Kuala Lumpur to accept to honour the Manila Accord at the very least.
Realistically, I believe that what a "President" BB Marcos can do come 2016 in the direction of Sabah hinges on what President Aquino does today which means that the current dispensation should show that it behaves, decides and acts in favour of the claim. President Aquino should be behaving today from the standpoint that Sabah is ours by right, historically and legally, eg., [examples of how the current Malacanang tenant shoud behave, decide and act, etc...]
(i) by defending the Tausugs and Suluks in Sabah from human rights violations,
(ii) by removing KL as the panel chair of the so-called GPH-MILF peace talks because you cannot have a fellow with whom you have an outstanding dispute to chair a talk that that fellow himself had engineered - complete stupidity, so anybody but KL or peninsular Malaysia,
(iii) by sending away those Malaysian so-called "peacekeepers" in Mindanao, again, anybody else but not from the country with whom we have an outstanding dispute and not from the country that continues to massacre our people in Sabah,
(iv) by not playing mouthpiece to Najib, certainly not the president of the Republic.

Unless President Aquino does these things within the last three years of his mandate - but which he is not doing at the moment,  the Sabah issue will not be easy for the next president to tackle. 
It is also a matter of military power. If the supporters of Mr Marcos think that he might resort to war - if he is president - in order to get Sabah back, we are not sure that Mr. Marcos, even if he is elected in three years will be able to mount the same action as his father once did. We are almost certain that he will not do it that way. All eyes will be trained at him if he becomes the president and it will not be easy to replicate an Operation Merdeka.
Besides, there is no guarantee that the current PH leadership will be able to organise the country's armed forces to a level that will be on par with that of Malaysia which the next president will need to realistically get Sabah back.


If the country's armed forces are not at that level, there is virtually no possibility that we can take back Sabah by force. You see, it is almost next to impossible for the country to possess the military arsenal required to achieve that sort of operation if the country does not go on a buying spree beginning today and spend at the very least a few hundreds of billions of dollars. 
And even then, there is time constraint to factor in. Even if you order within the next three years, you are not guaranteed that you will have delivery of ships, submarines, attack helicopters, radars, missile systems, etc.,in  two or three and not even 4, 5 years after the order is placed in time for Mr Marcos to launch his "war" to take Sabah back (if that's what his supporters believe he will do if he becomes president.)


But having outlined the downside, we do not suggest that the current leadership give up on Sabah claim. President Aquino must prepare the way for the next president to achieve what he cannot achieve today. It is the least he can do. And obviously, he cannot do that if he accepts to be the little 'toy boy' of Najib.

~~ Admins, Philippine Sabah Claim Forum
30 June 2013

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