ZAMBOANGA CITY (Mindanao Examiner / Mar. 30, 2013) – Dozens of illegal Filipino workers and immigrants who escaped the eastern Malaysian state of Sabah arrived in the southern Philippine port city of Zamboanga after being stranded in Tawi-Tawi province.
The Filipinos, numbering about 70, were ferried by a naval ship and turned over to social workers. Many of the illegal immigrants were natives of Zamboanga Peninsula and Basilan province, and other as far as Luzon.
They escaped the crackdown launched by Malaysian security forces that are battling members of the Sultanate of Sulu who intruded in Lahad Datu town in February.
Sultan Jamalul sent his brother Raja Muda Agbimuddin along with about 200 loyal followers to exert historical claim over Sabah, which was ceded by Brunei in the 17th century to the Sultan of Sulu for helping quell a rebellion. Malaysia annexed Sabah, then called North Borneo, after locals voted to join the federation.
More than 60 followers of Raja Muda Agbimuddin were killed in clashes with Malaysian security forces following weeks of deadly standoff that also left 10 Sabah policemen and two soldiers dead. (Mindanao Examiner)
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