SULU (Mindanao Examiner / Mar. 22, 2013) – A Philippine Navy patrol boat rescued more than 160 Filipinos after spending four days drifting at sea on a wooden boat that escaped the violence in Sabah where Malaysian security forces are fighting armed members of the Sultanate of Sulu, officials said Friday.
Officials said the boat’s engine broke down in rough seas between the southern Philippine provinces of Tawi-Tawi and Sulu.
The passengers, mostly Muslims from the Philippines, had escaped from the eastern Malaysian state last week fearing a massive crackdown on Filipinos is underway, said Fazlur-Rahman Abdulla, head of the Sulu Area Coordinating Council and member of a special government task force on Sabah refugees.
“We only learned about their plight after receiving information from another vessel which also escaped the violence in Sabah. As soon as we got the information and relayed this to the Philippine Navy and the Philippine Air Force, a search and rescue operation was mounted and we have recovered all of them,” he told the regional newspaper Mindanao Examiner.
He said a military helicopter first spotted the vessel and dropped food and water for the passengers until the patrol boat arrived late on Thursday and rescued all aboard the stricken boat.
Fazlur said the refugees, 104 adults and 57 children, were taken to a processing center on orders from Sulu Governor Sakur Tan, head of the crisis management committee, and provided them food and shelter; and that a medical team also examined the children and the elderly. He said the Philippine Red Cross and other government agencies helped in the processing of the refugees.
He said dozens of refugees also arrived bo boat in the town of Parang also in Sulu province after fleeing Sabah. Most of the refuges are natives of Basilan province.
Fazlur said the refugees at first would not get off the boat after seeing uniformed policemen guarding the pier for fear they would be arrested, but all eventually agreed to disembark after officials explained to them that the policemen were part of security in the area.
Malaysia is battling a rag-tag army of loyal followers of Sulu Sultan Jamalul Kiram who landed in February in Lahad Datu town in Sabah to exert their determination and historical rights over the island, which is also being claimed by Kuala Lumpur. (Mindanao Examiner)
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