RP unifies approach on Sabah claim

RP unifies approach on Sabah claim

Agencies, Manila

Philippine President Gloria Arroyo and Congress leaders agreed on Friday to craft a unified approach to Manila's dormant claim to the Malaysian state of Sabah on Borneo island.

The meeting was called after several lawmakers sought to revive the claim to Sabah in retaliation for the mass deportation of thousands of Filipino illegal migrants from Malaysia.

Manila has a longstanding claim on Sabah, which it says was part of the Islamic sultanate of Sulu in the southern Philippines before Malaysia obtained independence.

After the meeting, Arroyo thanked the legislators who attended for their "very sober suggestions and recommendations."

"We are affirmed that we can indeed come up with a national unified position on the Sabah issue at this time," a presidential palace statement quoted her as saying.

It did not say what the recommendations were or what the unified position would be.

Foreign Secretary Blas Ople briefed the legislators on the Philippine policy towards the Sabah claim "so that we may correct gaps in our understanding of common problems."

As a result of the meeting, Arroyo revived a joint legislative-executive advisory body on the Sabah claim "in order to unify the country's position on the issue," the palace added.

The advisory body will include five members of the cabinet, five senators, five members of the lower house, including at least two opposition members, and three members of the private sector, the palace added.

Congressman Apolinario Lozada, one of the legislators who attended the meeting, said the law-makers "agreed with the executive on the procedure and the process of facing the problem ... without jeopardizing the unity of ASEAN as well as our bilateral relations with our close friend and neighbor, the Federation of Malaysia."

The Philippines and Malaysia are members of ASEAN, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, along with Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Myanmar, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye said that helping the thousands of Filipinos being deported from Malaysia was the main priority of government and that "the Sabah issue remains a low priority."

Arroyo has been trying to get legislators to tone down their rhetoric over Sabah, warning it could affect the repatriation of hundreds of Filipinos still in Malaysia.

Arroyo said last week the Sabah issue "must be firmly delinked from the issue of deportees," accusing certain Filipino politicians, whom she did not identify, of grandstanding and "diplomatic adventurism".

A Philippine delegation has since visited Malaysia to look into the reports of alleged maltreatment of Filipino deportees.

Malaysia's envoy to the Philippines said on Friday his country should not be blamed for the mass deportations of illegal Filipino workers and that Manila shares responsibility for crowding in Malaysian detention camps holding them.

"What's going on is rather unfortunate but I stand by what I have said: It is the making of the Philippine people themselves," Malaysian Ambassador Mohamed Taufik told Associated Press Television News.

A social welfare officer said in Zamboanga, Philippines on Friday that Malaysian investigators seeking to interview a 13- year-old Filipino allegedly raped by a Malaysian policeman should do so in the southern Philippine city.

The girl became "mentally disturbed" after her ordeal at a detention camp in Malaysia's eastern Sabah state, and is too weak to travel to file charges against her alleged attacker, said Araceli Salamillo, regional officer-in-charge of the social welfare department.