Philippines continues search for Sabah raiders, 2 hostages

From the Mindanao Examiner blog site (Apr 4): Philippines continues search for Sabah raiders, 2 hostages

Filipino authorities continue to build up intelligence to determine whether gunmen who raided and seized 2 people at a Malaysian dive resort have sneaked into the southern Philippines.

Persistent reports suggest the Abu Sayyaf could be involved in the daring raid late Wednesday on Singamata Adventures and Reef Resort in the town of Semporna in Sabah where 5 gunmen abducted a 29-year old Chinese holidaymaker Gao Huayun, 29, and seized a Filipino hotel employee, Marcy Dayawan, 40.

The Department of Foreign Affairs has not release any information about the Filipina.

“We still have no confirmation whether the Abu Sayyaf was behind the raid or if the gunmen have sneaked into the Sulu Archipelago, but we have alerted our forces and continue to gather intelligence information about this incident,” Senior Superintendent Abraham Orbita, the Sulu police chief, told the regional newspaper Mindanao Examiner.

There was also no report from authorities in the Filipino province of Tawi-Tawi which is near Sabah whether the raiders have sought refugee there or not. 

Search 

The navy also deployed small boats to patrol the long coastline of the archipelago.

“We are exerting efforts to search and locate the kidnapped victims in probable areas in Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi where they could have been brought. Naval Task Force 62 is now conducting extensive search while other units in the area have been in high alert,” marine Captain Maria Rowena Myuela, a spokeswoman for the Western Mindanao Command, told the Mindanao Examiner.

No individual or group claimed responsibility for the raid, but Malaysian authorities have initially blamed the Abu Sayyaf which has stormed several resorts and kidnapped tourists and Malaysians over the past two decades and ransomed them off.

Putrajaya has been largely criticized for the latest breach in security, but relatives and families of Filipinos working in Sabah fear that Malaysia may launch a crackdown again on Filipino communities and illegal workers on the mineral-rich island which is being claimed by the Sultanate of Sulu.

Royal Security Force

The raid came barely a week after General Panglima who claimed to be a leader of the Royal Security Force of the Sultanate of Sulu threatened to launch violent campaign if President Benigno Aquino to support a long-standing historical claim on the island of Sabah – then known as North Borneo - which Malaysia illegally annexed in 1963.

“Nananawagan kami sa pamahalaan na sana po gawin nila o hanapan na lang ng paraan ang isyu na ito at huwag naman nila ito isantabi. One year na kami sa giyera at naghihintay mula ng sumiklab ang gulo sa Sabah noon February 2013 at 2014 na ngayon ay wala pa rin action ang pamahalaan ukol dito sa Sabah claim,” General Panglima said.

In February last year, the ailing Sultan Jamalul Kiram III, of the Sultanate of Sulu, sent about 200 followers headed by his brother Raja Muda Agbimuddin Kiram to Sabah to exert their claim and historical rights over the island, which is also being claimed by Malaysia.

Sultan Jamalul’s group has rejected Malaysian demand for them to surrender peacefully and a fighting erupted in Lahad Datu town where more than 60 of the sultan’s men had been killed and over 300 Filipinos arrested on suspicion they were supporting or aiding the group of Raja Muda Agbimuddin.

Malaysia also put Sultan Jamalul and his brother on its wanted list and branded them as terrorists for intruding into Sabah and killing and decapitating 10 policemen and soldiers in separate clashes on the island. Raja Muda Agbimuddin managed to escape the Malaysian assault in Sabah, while Sultan Jamalul died in October last year from a lingering illness at age 75.

General Panglima also said that Manila failed or refused to help sultanate members and Filipinos illegally detained in Sabah in connection to the fighting last year.

“Binalewala nila ang aming isyu (sa Sabah). Masakit man sa amin na pumanaw na ang mahal namin pinuno na si Sultan Jamalul Kiram III at hindi rin sila nakinig. Kung kaya’t gulo lang ang gusto nilang pag-usapan o pakinggan ng pamahalaan, kaya din namin gumawa ng malaking gulo o karahasan sa buong Mindanao kahit na minamaliit pa nila ang aming puwersa o grupo kaya nananawagan kami sa pamahalaan na tulungan kaming hanapan ng paraan ang isyu ma ito. Magtulungan at magkaisa tayo at laban na ito para sa buong Pilipino, Kristiyano at Muslim ay magkapatid at iisang dugo,” he said.

The threats came following the signing of the peace agreement between the Philippines and the country’s largest Muslim rebel group Moro Islamic Liberation Front which Malaysia has brokered.

Sabah is ours

The Sultanate of Sulu and North Borneo continues to lay claim to Sabah. It obtained Sabah from Brunei as a gift for helping put down a rebellion on the Borneo Island. The British leased Sabah and transferred control over the territory to Malaysia after the end of World War II.

But the Sulu Sultanate said it had merely leased North Borneo in 1878 to the British North Borneo Company for an annual payment of 5,000 Malayan dollars then, which was increased to 5,300 Malayan dollars in 1903.

The Sultanate of Sulu was founded in 1457 and is believed to exist as a sovereign nation for at least 442 years. It stretches from a part of the island of Mindanao in the east, to Sabah, in the west and south, and to Palawan, in the north. North Borneo was annexed by Malaysia in 1963 following a referendum organised by the Cobbold Commission in 1962, the people of Sabah voted overwhelmingly to join Malaysia.

Malaysia continues to pay an annual stipend of 5,300 ringgits to the Sultanate of Sulu on the basis of the sultanate ceding the Borneo state. But fighting also persists among those who claim to be the heir of the Sultan of Sulu and as many as four dozen people are saying they are the real sultan.

 http://www.mindanaoexaminer.net/2014/04/philippines-continues-search-for-sabah.html