Sultan disowns talks with gov’t

MANILA, Philippines - Sulu Sultan Jamalul Kiram III is disowning a supposed agreement between his brother and the government on “disengaging” the sultanate’s armed followers in Sabah with Malaysian security forces, saying he is against it.

Jamalul told reporters yesterday that he had not authorized his younger brother Esmail Kiram II to discuss the issue of disengagement with Interior and Local Government Secretary Manuel Roxas II.

He said he was surprised to learn that Roxas and his brother had begun exploring the issue of disengagement.

Roxas had even announced to the media after his meeting with Esmail that disengagement should not be confused with surrender.

After the meeting between Roxas and Esmail at Camp Crame, the Philippines – through the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) – immediately conveyed the development to Malaysia.

Roxas earlier said his talks with Esmail had focused on establishing a mechanism for laying down arms by the sultanate’s remaining forces in Sabah.

When asked by reporters if he had been informed of the disengagement issue after his brother’s meeting with Roxas, Jamalul said: “They reported to me that they have just talked.”

He said the word “disengagement” was not even mentioned. “Wala, wala, wala (nothing, nothing, nothing).”

Jamalul told reporters that Esmail apparently had acted on his own.

“I have no idea. I don’t like him to talk to anybody. I told him to stay with me,” he said.

He said disengagement is not an option for ending the violence in Sabah, adding that he would have to consult with his brother Agbimuddin, who is heading the sultanate’s estimated 200 armed followers in Sabah.

“That’s what I don’t like. It’s like dropping out of a baseball game on reaching the third base,” he said in Filipino.

Jamalul, however, stressed that the sultanate is still open to negotiations.

“From the beginning... my door is open for negotiations,” he said.

He also slammed Malacañang for talking to his brother Esmail on the disengagement issue and not to him.

“If there is something to talk about, it should be discussed with me,” he said.

“It hurts, because he’s a brother. And it hurts if your name has been used not for the good and welfare of the Filipino people,” he added.

Despite his displeasure at Esmail’s unauthorized deal with the government, Jamalul said the Kiram family is still united.

“I’ve been telling everybody that there is no division among the family. We’re united,” he said.

Sultanate spokesman Abraham Idjirani, for his part, said they have yet to verify reports in the Malaysian media that 23 of the sultanate’s fighters in Sabah – including a “general” – had been killed in the latest Malaysian offensive.

He said Agbimuddin called him up at past 6 a.m. yesterday to inform him that Haji Abdullah of the “royal army” had escaped an assault last week.

‘Double hearsay’

Meanwhile, presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda described as “double hearsay” the statement made by former foreign affairs official Hermes Dorado that ex-senator Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino Jr. bargained with former Prime Minister Mohamad Mahatir to drop the Philippines’ claim to Sabah in exchange for support from Malaysia.

“Dorado himself admitted that he had no personal knowledge of the meeting that allegedly transpired and relied merely on second-hand information from Rafael Ileto. That’s all conjecture,” Lacierda said.

When pressed about Dorado’s allegation that former President Corazon Aquino, mother of President Aquino, purposefully had the 1987 Constitution amended to drop the Sabah claim, Lacierda said that Dorado was clearly mistaken.

“The 1987 Constitution did not drop our claim to Sabah. In fact, the framers of the Constitution had a debate on the amendment to the phrasing of the section on national territory, and it was clear to them the amendment did not have the effect of dropping our claim.”

The DFA said it is still awaiting Kuala Lumpur’s response to United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon’s call for a peaceful resolution of the crisis in Sabah.

“We welcome those statements and it’s now for Malaysia to react to that call of the UN secretary general,” DFA spokesperson Raul Hernandez said yesterday.

“For now, we are looking at how the Malaysians will respond to the UN call,” Hernandez added.

He said the Philippine humanitarian/consular team still had no access to Filipinos detained by Malaysian authorities.

“We have access to the Filipinos in the evacuation centers but what we have been trying to get is that... we have free access to the Filipinos who are being detained by the Malaysian forces,” Hernandez said.

“We are working on it, we are also trying to determine where they are detained. We have not been able to access those who have been detained by the Malaysian forces and we’re trying to work this out and hopefully we will be able to access our people ASAP,” Hernandez said.

“We are exerting utmost efforts to reach out to as many Filipinos in eastern Sabah at the soonest time possible. We are making arrangements to repatriate those who express the desire to do so. We feel and understand the anxieties felt by many of our kababayans,” Philippine Ambassador to Malaysia J. Eduardo Malaya said. – Rainier Allan Ronda