ZAMBOANGA CITY (Mindanao Examiner / Mar. 3, 2013) – The Philippines has appealed on Sunday to Filipinos living and working in North Borneo to stay calm as Malaysian authorities hunt down members of the Sultanate of Sulu and North Borneo on the oil-rich island being claimed by both sides.
“We feel and understand the anxieties felt by many of you at these difficult times. The Embassy will work with concerned authorities to ensure your safety and well-being. This is not the time to undertake any action that might be misunderstood by some parties,” the Philippine Embassy in Kuala Lumpur said in a statement sent to the regional newspaper Mindanao Examiner.
It called on members of the Filipino-Malaysian community in the eastern coast of the island, particularly in the towns of Lahad Datu, Semporna and Kunak to “remain calm and abide by the guidelines issued by local authorities” in light of tensions between some 200 members of the Sulu Sultanate and the Malaysian authorities.
Malaysian authorities said five policemen were killed in an ambush by suspected members of the Sulu Sultanate in Semporna. Two of the ambushers were also slain in the fighting that eventually broke out.
The Sulu Sultanate earlier accused Malaysian security forces of killing 6 Filipino Muslims in the area following a raid on a house of a preacher.
Malaysia has cut off all telecommunications in the town of Lahad Datu in North Borneo where security forces have surrounded about 200 mostly armed members of the Sultanate of Sulu who are fighting for their historical rights over the oil and mineral-rich island.
Sulu Sultan Jamalul Kiram, whose brother Raja Muda Agbimuddin Kiram, is leading a ragtag army of followers, said they have lost all communications to their group holed up in the village of Tanduo, but warned that Muslims in the Philippines would surely rise up if all of them end up dead in an assault by Malaysian forces.
The Sultanate of Sulu is claiming historical ownership to North Borneo or Sabah as what Malaysia now calls them. Brunei gave the island to the Sulu Sultanate for helping quell a rebellion many centuries ago, but Malaysia annexed North Borneo, although it is still paying so-called “cession money” to Sultan Fuad Kiram. (Mindanao Examiner)
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