Malaysia holds 32 Filipinos trying to join incursion

Agencies/Kuala Lumpur/Manila

Malaysian security forces yesterday stopped a boat carrying 32 armed Filipinos who were trying to join a two-month-old incursion into the east Malaysian state of Sabah, police said.

Sabah police chief Hamza Taib said the group, armed with guns and machetes, was arrested about 12 nautical miles from the state’s east coast, less than an hour away by boat from the southern Philippines.

The group’s wooden motor boat was towed to Sandakan on the east coast of Sabah on Borneo island but no details were given of where the 32 are being held.

More than 200 armed Islamist followers of the self-styled “Sultan of Sulu”—a new-defunct southern Philippine sultanate—landed in February to claim Sabah for their leader, reviving a centuries-old territorial row.

The incursion and a Malaysian counter-assault in early March left at least 68 militants dead along with 10 security personnel, according to authorities, and strained relations with Manila.

But authorities appear to have failed to catch most of the militants, leading to a prolonged security crisis which has forced Malaysia to relocate villages on the coast considered vulnerable to infiltration. Philippine media earlier yesterday had cited rebels as saying that 1,000 gunmen were trying to break through a naval blockade to support the fight against Malaysian security forces.

Meanwhile, the Philippine government has discouraged Sultan Kiram Jamalul from sending more of his supporters to Sabah, noting that this won’t resolve the conflict in northern Borneo.

Presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda said yesterday that if Kiram and his followers want a peaceful resolution, sending reinforcement troops won’t help or improve the situation, Xinhua reported.

“If they claim to want a peaceful resolution, they should be moving towards that direction. We don’t see that happening on their side,” Lacierda said in a briefing.

Lacierda said the government continues to extend help to Filipinos who are returning from Sabah following the standoff in Lahad Datu.

According to the Department of Social Welfare and Development ( DSWD), some 5,349 people have returned from Sabah since the stand- off started in February.

The DSWD added that 50 representatives of government agencies drafted an action plan to track and ensure that services are provided to families returning from Sabah.

“One action plan is to issue a Family Access Card to displaced persons from Sabah upon disembarkation at any point in Mindanao. The Provincial Social Welfare Officers (PSWOs) of the three provinces of Tawi-Tawi, Sulu and Basilan will provide colour-coded cards to displaced families to entitle them to services being provided by the national and local governments and to prevent duplication in the availing of the services,” DSWD Undersecretary Parisya Hashim-Taradji said.

Taradji explained that the access cards will systematise provision of relief, transportation, shelter assistance and cash- for-work to displaced families. She said the DSWD will also deploy 12 social workers to Sabah to reinforce the efforts of staff currently assisting the affected Filipinos.

She said DSWD will also deploy a four-man team to Tawi-Tawi and Sulu on April 9-13, to undertake needs assessment and contingency planning for the continued arrival of displaced Filipinos from Sabah.

The DSWD and non-governmental organisations have provided a total of 10.4mn pesos ($252,611) worth of humanitarian aid to displaced families. The aid includes relief packs, hygiene kits and transportation assistance.