Inaction over Sabah crisis, Malaysia "incursion" in Mindanao and the 1963 Manila Accord: The President may be guilty of working against the interests of the Republic in the service of a foreign government

Tomorrow (or today depending on which side of the globe you are seated), 31 July is the 50th Anniversary of the signing of the Manila Accord... 

In an article by Vidal Yudin Weil for the Free Malaysia Today dated March 9, 2013, the writer called Najib to task after Najib's following pronouncement in Lahad Datu:

“The question of Sabah within Malaysia should not be disputed by anyone. Let not anyone underestimate Malaysia’s commitment to have Sabah within Malaysia forever. No one can dispute this, from within and outside the country. We will uphold the principle and fact of Sabah within Malaysia absolutely”. 

Writer Vidal insisted that Najib was wrong: "Najib is wrong in making unilateral claims that Sabah belongs to Malaysia when historical legal documents and agreements may indicate otherwise."

To prove his point, he enumerated the salient points in that Manila Accord: 

(i) the inclusion of Sabah into the formation of Malaysia is subject to the Philippines claim; 
(ii) and the Philippines’ claim on Sabah must be settled in the International Court of Justice (ICJ) run by the United Nations.

With implaccable logic, he said: "Therefore, until such time when the ICJ has decided, Malaysia does not have absolute ownership of Sabah."

Fifty years hence and PH is still in no man's land about where its loyalty and interests lay... Fifty years hence and PH still has not fulfilled its contractual obligations part of which is to prosecute the Sabah claim which by PH law, by virtue of Republic Act 5446, is Philippine territory. 

We were hoping that following the Tanduo siege and the in the aftermath of the Lahad Datu massacre of Filipinos who went to Sabah to finally stake their claim in February this year (because of the Republic's failure to honour its legal and moral obligations vis-à-vis the Republic and the Sultanate of Sulu), President Aquino now understands that he cannot give away Sabah without violating the law. 

But the sad part is that while President Aquino just may have realised that his hands are constitutionally tied and that he cannot do as he pleases overtly or publicly, i.e., give up the claim or give Sabah to Malaysia officially, it seems he has resorted to subterfuge when he both implicitly and explicitly sided with Malaysia on virtually everything during the critical Tanduo-Lahad Datu events that saw many of our countrymen arrested, abused, killed, and deported! It's as if he had sworn his personal loyalty to Malaysia for some personal debt which to us is not this nation's debt! 


By choosing to side with Najib and Malaysia rather than with the Sultanate of Sulu, the president is definitely guilty of violating the Republic's contractual obligation vis-à-vis the Sultanate of Sulu which was to prosecute the Sabah claim. 

The President must realise that his refusal or inaction to push for the recognition of the 1963 Manila Accord during this critical period after Malaysia killed many Tausugs, jailed and deported Suluks and when KL judiciary is about to sentence to the death penalty many of our countrymen, is tantamount to giving Najib and the Kuala Lumpur government the right 'to rape' Filipinos and to go ahead and plunder the Philippines by way of Sabah. 

I am sorry to say but no matter how we turn this Sabah issue around today, we see it no other way: The President may be guilty of working against the interests of the Republic in the service of a foreign government. 


~~ AdB
For the Philippine Sabah Claim Forum
and for the Defenders of the Philippine Sabah & Spratly Claims
30 July 2013


Related blog posts: 

• Najib bombastic, Aquino frightened but both are guilty of not honouring 1963 Manila Accord
• Sabah dispute, the Philippine claim and the International Court of Justice
• On Malaysia-engineered GPH-MILF "peace talks": NoyNoy Aquino's personal debt of gratitude to Malaysia is not the nation's debt
• Sabah's sovereignty 1946-1963: Although compromised by British colonisation, Sabah legally belonged to the Sultanate of Sulu
• ONLY LEGAL SOLUTION TO SABAH QUESTION IS TO HONOUR UN TREATY - 1963 MANILA ACCORD
• Beyond comprehension: PH Government's un-involved observer stance on Filipino actions to revive Sabah claim
• On Manila Accord of 1963: Malaysia prefers to lose 'national honour' than to lose Sabah
• Malaysian writer's Sabah conflict solution: Revisit the Manila Accord
• Lahad Datu Massacre, Sulu Sultanate Rights and the Manila Accord 1963
• United Nations Treaties No. 8029: Manila Accord 1963

Sulu ‘volunteers’ plan Sabah incursions

Sulu ‘volunteers’ plan Sabah incursions

The Sulu Sultanate on Sunday  said  it is sending more “volunteer” fighters to Sabah from Mindanao to reassert its territorial claim over it and to protect the Filipinos there who are being rounded up by Malaysian police.

Abraham Idjirani, spokesman of Sulu Sultan Jamalul Kiram III, said groups of Bangsa Suluk volunteers were preparing to sail to Sabah and join the 1,600-strong Royal Security Forces of the sultanate led by Kiram’s brother, Raja Muda Agbimuddin Kiram.

“They will be going to Sabah because of the un-Islamic rounding up of innocent civilians by the Malaysian security forces,” Idjirani said from Kiram’s residence in Taguig City.

“They feel it is their patriotic duty to protect their countrymen there and to show the world that Sabah is their homeland.”

Asked how many fighters were sailing to Sabah, Idjirani said they had no idea yet but the fighters would be going there quietly in waves or groups to elude the Malaysian and Philippine naval cordons.

Once in Sabah, they would be consolidating forces and communicating with Agbimuddin, who remains in Sabah since sailing there with 200 men in February.

“They are now driven by their belief that Malaysia does not own Sabah,” Idjirani said.

He said the volunteers would come from Sulu, Tawi-Tawi, Basilan and Zamboanga.

“Our leaders told us that these Bangsa Suluks have been itching to go to Sabah because they are angry over the Malaysians’ treatment of the Filipino residents of Sabah,” Idjirani said.

He said  some of the Sabah-bound volunteers would be armed, with many of them experienced in battle, although they would not be going to Sabah to wage war.

http://manilastandardtoday.com/2013/07/29/sulu-volunteers-plan-sabah-incursions/

China arms unified coast guard agency to handle sea conflict

 China arms unified coast guard agency to handle sea conflict

China is bent on showing the international community that it has indisputable jurisdiction over the waters over which China claims ownership.
China is now arming a united coast guard agency to prove its jurisdiction over the disputed waters.
China’s new unified coast guard agency has gone into operation, state media reported Tuesday amid maritime disputes with neighbors, and experts said more ships will be armed as a result.
The China Coast Guard integrates the functions of marine surveillance, the existing coast guard which came under the police, fisheries law enforcement and Customs’ anti-smuggling maritime police.
The divisions “that were not allowed to be equipped with weapons can be armed now,” Yang Mian, professor of international relations at the Communication University of China, was quoted as saying by the Global Times newspaper.
“The new agency will also make our law enforcement more powerful.” The new agency will “have reasonable and legal law enforcement equipment” and “detect and rapidly handle in accordance with the law acts that harm China’s maritime rights and interests”, Zhang Junshe, a military researcher, wrote in a commentary in the PLA Daily.

Tensions have been growing over China’s island disputes with Japan and other neighbors.
Chinese surveillance ships have frequently approached disputed islands in the East China Sea, which Japan controls and knows as the Senkakus but which China claims as the Diaoyus, after Tokyo nationalized some of them last September.
The Philippines and Vietnam have accused Beijing of aggressively asserting its extensive claims in the South China Sea, although tensions have abated slightly with Hanoi in recent weeks.
With an eye on the rows, the United States has strengthened military cooperation with Japan and the Philippines — which are both treaty-bound allies — as well as with former war adversary Vietnam.

http://www.tribune.net.ph/index.php/headlines/item/17062-china-arms-unified-coast-guard-agency-to-handle-sea-conflict

Fraudulent Sulu sultanate claimant Datu Fuad Kiram aims to legitimize sting operation

ATTENTION! TO THE UNIVERSITY OF THE PHILIPPINES:
 
We have just been informed that a group of charlatans headed by Datu Fuad Kiram and aided by his close-in handlers, are working hard, aiming 'hig'h in order to legitimise their sting operation and are exploiting the naivete of a UP student group: the UP Economics Society which is about to sponsor a symposium founded on the fraudulent claim by Datu Fuad Kiram and his handler Omar Kiram (not a Kiram nor a prince of the Tausug) that they are sultan of Sulu and Sabah and 'grand prince' of Sulu respectively.

We fear that the UP Economics Society which we understand is composed of students from the Philippine state university might be unwittingly lending their name to an economic scam by the group of Datu Fuad Kiram. The UP group must be informed. Their ignorance of Sabah claim history is most likely being exploited by said band of con artists.

We suggest that the UP Economics Society not allow the name of the University of the Philippines to be lent to such undertaking by a group of fraudulent sultanate of Sulu claimants.

However, if the UP student group could INVITE ALL THE CLAIMANTS TO THE THRONE TO THE SYMPOSIUM TO TACKLE THE Sulu Sultanate claim and to ask them about their purpose, then fine... Otherwise, the said UP students must exercise due diligence and inquire, get informed and learn about who is who in the Sultanate before they attach their name to a group of objectionable individuals such as Datu Fuad's and his handler's whose only purpose in life it seems is to use the nation's Sabah claim to try to get rich quick.

It is imperative for the members of the UP Economics Society not to risk their credibility as the nation's brightest of the bright students whose education is greatly subsidised by the Filipino taxpayers. One way to do it is to be cautious...extremely cautious that they are not exploited to satisfy the grandiose economic dream of Datu Fuad Kiram and his men for himself and for their band of fraudsters that can and will damage the nation's genuine claim to Sabah.

~ Administrators
Philippine Sabah Claim Forum
Defenders of the Philippine Sabah & Spratly Claims
16 July 2013

UN tribunal starts arbitration process on PHL-China sea dispute

UN tribunal starts arbitration process on PHL-China sea dispute

July 16, 2013 4:50pm

A United Nations tribunal has been convened in the Netherlands to look into a complaint filed by the Philippines questioning the legality of China’s massive territorial claim in the resource-rich South China Sea.

“The Philippine government is pleased that the Arbitral Tribunal is now formally constituted, and that the arbitration process has begun,” Foreign Affairs spokesman Raul Hernandez told a press briefing Tuesday.
   
The progress in the Philippines’s legal challenge against China comes amid increasing animosity between the two Asian neighbors due to their long-standing territorial conflict.

Manila and Beijing recently traded diplomatic barbs over the Philippines’s decision to seek international arbitration - the latest manifestation of a longstanding territorial feud between the two countries over South China Sea territories.

Recently, the conflict was reignited with tense confrontations between Chinese and Philippine vessels in two disputed shoals – Scarborough and Ayungin – off Manila’s western coasts.

At their first meeting on July 11, the President and Members of the Tribunal designated The Hague in the Netherlands as the seat of the arbitration and the Permanent Court of Arbitration as the Registry for the proceedings, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said.

Part of the process is to determine if the tribunal has jurisdiction over Manila’s complaint. The case will only proceed once the tribunal decides that the complaint filed by the Philippines has legal merit and falls under its jurisdiction.

“Whether they have decided jurisdiction, they will publicly announce this,” Hernandez said.

Manila pledged its “fullest cooperation” with the tribunal “in order to assure a fair, impartial and efficient process that produces a final and binding judgment in conformity with international law.”

http://www.gmanetwork.com/news/story/317703/news/nation/un-tribunal-starts-arbitration-process-on-phl-china-sea-dispute

Manila, Washington widen talks for military deal

Manila, Washington widen talks for military deal

MANILA (Reuters) - Washington and Manila have expanded talks on military cooperation to include possible U.S. funding to build facilities and the storage of U.S. humanitarian relief supplies, the Philippine envoy to the United States said on Tuesday.

The wider scope of the talks for joint use of civilian and military facilities signals rapidly warming security ties between the allies as the Philippines looks to the U.S. administration to help counter a newly assertive China.

The Philippines has ruled out granting permanent basing rights to Washington, Ambassador Jose Cuisia said, but it would give U.S. warplanes and warships wider access to Philippine bases on a temporary and rotational basis, helping the Asian nation improve its minimum defence capability.

The increasing rotational presence of U.S. forces in the country is covered by the 1998 Visiting Forces Agreement, but a new arrangement would be needed if Washington built facilities to support its temporary deployment to the Philippines.

"We need to expand (the 1998 pact) further because we may have to build some additional facilities," Cuisia told reporters in the Philippine capital.

The two countries have been in talks since 2011 for "joint use" of civilian and military facilities in the former U.S. colony.

http://news.yahoo.com/manila-washington-widen-talks-military-deal-082344483.html

Kick out Malaysia troops from Mindanao! Kick out Malaysia from so-called peace talks with the MILF

We have always said that we should not allow Malaysia to engineer peace talks. 

We don't have anything against wealth sharing with members of our country, individuals or groups but we take issue with the presence of Kuala Lumpur. We don't want Kuala Lumpur's people in Mindanao. We don't want their troops in Mindanao. And this entire GPH-MILF so-called peace framework agreement has sidelined groups in Mindanao notably the MNLF and the Sultanate of Sulu whose sons and daughters are languishing in jail and possibly will face the death penalty in Kuala Lumpur government prisons over the Tanduo, Sabah siege in February. 

Why did they do that? Why did President Aquino approve such Malaysia-engineered arrangement? Because we figure it is his way of annihilating the Philippine claim to Sabah. He is not a true patriot. We must be extremely careful that we are not actually "selling" off a piece of Mindanao to appease Malaysia through Kuala Lumpur-funded rebels MILF.

Kick out Malaysia troops from Mindanao! 


It smacks of great stupidity to allow Kuala Lumpur to engineer this so-called peace talks. President Aquino, ever the appeaser himself said that he has a personal debt of gratitude to Malaysia. What debt of gratitude? His father's debt of gratitude to the Malaysians, to Mahathir via the Sultan of Johor, is not the nation's debt. President Aquino's sister, Kris Aquino, who, by the way, has been cavorting with the Sultan of Johor if we believe her own show, could very well pay for that debt personally and there's no need to involve the nation's national integrity in that Aquino debt of gratitude.

It smacks of common sense that you do not allow one with whom you have an outstanding territorial dispute to engineer an important peace initiative with your country's secessionist rebels. And we have an outstanding territorial dispute over Sabah with Kuala Lumpur. 

Doesn't the Aquino Administration know that Malaysia, the engineers of the so-called peace framework, has been funding rebels against this govt for the last 40 years? Kuala Lumpur has been funding the MILF to sow terror in Muslim Mindanao. Kuala Lumpur has been able to stage manage this rebellion and then convinced the Philippine government to accept Malaysia boots in Mindanao. How stupid and idiotic can one get!

Malaysia has not even deigned honor the Manila Accord, a United Nations treaty no less, which was signed 50 years ago and you trust them not to be in cahoots with the MILF to push the 13 provinces to ultimately secede from the Philippines? 

Once more with feeling: You cannot and must not trust the MILF. They do not speak for all the Muslims in Mindanao. They do not represent the great Bangsamoro. There are at the very least 5 rebel factions in Mindanao among which is the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), the enemies of the MILF, on top of which you have the Sultanate of Sulu which has been sidelined by this inept Aquino Administration.

The MILF has been funded by Kuala Lumpur since the early 70s to wage war against the Republic of the Philippines. They are the permanent boots of Kuala Lumpur in Mindanao. Wake up. Open your eyes. 

A Malaysia-engineered so-called peace framework cannot bring the ultimate peace that you desire.

Start all over again! Kick out Malaysia from "peace talks" and kick out "Malaysia troops" from Mindanao. Select another country to chair peace talks and assemble, include all the rebel groups in Mindanao in the drafting of a peace agreement. To achieve a minimum of just and lasting peace, the process must be inclusive otherwise pockets of war will be inevitable.

~~ By HM Sultana Matt Salleh
for the Philippine Sabah Claim Forum
15 July 2013