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.