Last week a news report was captured by many news dailies about how the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) through the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) offered to downgrade its claim on Sabah in exchange for Malaysia’s support for its case against China before the United Nations (UN).
This was accordingly the context of the DFA’s note verbale which, despite the assuring statements by DFA officials, former Philippine Permanent Representative to the UN Lauro Baja Jr. categorically stated prejudices our claim to Sabah as “we are in effect withdrawing our objection to Malaysia’s claim of ownership to Sabah”.
This treachery and Malaysia’s continuing role in related developments should be heavily scrutinized, particularly in light of the peace agreement between the GRP and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) (which was incidentally declared unconstitutional by our Supreme Court and was hurriedly and quietly signed in Kuala Lumpur—not in the Philippines), the inutile response of this administration to 2013 Sabah incident as well as the unfortunate January 25 incident in Mamasapano where 44 members of the Special Action Force (SAF) of the Philippine National Police (PNP) sent to arrest Malaysian terrorist Zulkifli bin Hir, alias Marwan and Filipino cohort Basit Usman were massacred by MILF and other terrorist elements.
Notwithstanding the Sabah issue, this administration allowed Malaysia to broker the peace agreements, act as referee in the peace talks, and head the International Monitoring Team (IMT) to oversee the implementation of the peace agreements signed by the GRP with the MILF.
And so it is to Malaysia to which the MILF, in utter arrogance, has placed their sole accountability to instead of our Government and Constitution. This is demonstrated by their action of submitting the results of their internal investigation on the massacre to the IMT instead of the GRP. Not surprisingly, the IMT declared that although members of the MILF had direct knowledge of the presence of Malaysian terrorist Marwan in their “territory” where he safely mingled with them for close to a decade, the MILF itself is blameless. The IMT report also found that the government and not just the MILF violated ceasefire agreements. Again, not surprisingly, Malacanang concurred with the findings and continues to seek a final agreement with the MILF within the year.
Definitely Malaysia should not have been allowed involvement because of our standing claim over Sabah and its direct support to the violence in Mindanao. Whatever motherhood statements Professor Miriam Coronel Ferrer and Secretary Teresita Deles may say on the contrary, this is a fact. Former PM Mahathir Mohamad even admitted this in an Al-Jazeera TV interview.
Likewise, it was clear in the Mamasapano Senate hearings that intercepted e-mails between Marwan and his brother showed that MILF commander Wahid Tundok (who is also implicated in several cases of murder, arson, robbery and other crimes) had acted as the protector of Marwan. The GRP knew of this and yet our peace panel immediately cleared him of involvement in the incident and worked for his freedom after he was captured last February. This presents a good picture of how this administration has been treacherously playing footsies with those threatening the security and integrity of the country.
Definitely, PNoy has treasonously allowed Malaysia to meddle in our affairs and let terrorists and insurgents alike to increase in military strength and posture, providing increased potential for greater violence in the future if we fail to act decisively now.
Let me close with the poignant words of Gen. Douglas MacArthur in his farewell address to US Congress on 19 April 1951: “They are blind to history’s clear lesson, for history teaches with unmistakable emphasis that appeasement but begets new and bloodier war. It points to no single instance where this end has justified that means, where appeasement has led to more than a sham peace. Like blackmail, it lays the basis for new and successively greater demands until, as in blackmail, violence becomes the only other alternative.”