Aquino awaits roadmap to end Sabah stalemate

By Catherine S Valente/Manila Times

President Benigno Aquino  has said that the country will seek resolution of the Sabah claim based on the roadmap that is being prepared jointly by the departments of justice (DOJ) and foreign affairs (DFA) and Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa Jr.

During the commemoration of the Jabidah massacre yesterday in Corregidor, Aquino said that the roadmap being drafted will be the basis for the peaceful resolution of the issue.

“I have ordered the Foreign Affairs department, the Justice department and our executive secretary to draft a Sabah roadmap to peacefully resolve the issue,” he said.

The chief executive earlier announced the creation of a team to study the status of the country’s claim to Sabah and ways on how the government can move it forward.

The team is composed of the judicial body, which will study the legal basis of the claim; the Foreign Affairs department which will look into the policy and the Presidential Communications Development and Strategic Planning Office which will do historical research. In his speech, Aquino said the Sabah standoff is proof that the country has not learned from the past.

It was the first time that a president has marked the Jabidah massacre, which refers to the killing of young Moro recruits from Sulu and Tawi-Tawi by their military handlers on the island of Corregidor.

The president said that the massacre and the incident in Sabah were part of a conspiracy. “What happened in Lahad Datu was a tragedy. But the biggest tragedy is that we do not learn from the past,” he said.