Envoy says Noy adopted back-burner policy on Sabah claim

KUALA LUMPUR – The country’s standing claim over Sabah will remain dormant, as the Aquino administration has adopted the “back-burner policy” of former President Fidel Ramos.

“We have a back-burner policy as we on our side study the matter of the claim. This back-burner policy dates back to the presidency of Fidel Ramos,” Ambassador Eduardo Malaya told Manila-based reporters in an interview here late Wednesday.

He said the Sabah claim, which was initiated by the Kiram family led by the late Sulu Sultan Jamalul Kiram III, does not pose any problem with Malaysian authorities and will not strain economic, political and diplomatic relations between the two countries.

“I think both sides have decided that it will be fruitful for the two to engage closely and expand cooperation on the political, economic and other fields while we on our side try to moderately study the claim on how to move forward on it,” he said.

When asked what the back-burner policy entails, Malaya said, “You have to ask the policy makers in Manila on that. We are implementers here of our policy already set.”

Aquino earlier said the Sabah territorial issue would not be part of the agenda when he meets the Malaysian king, The Yang Di-Pertuan Agong, and Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak.

The Malaysian government pays Manila a measly annual rental fee of P75,000 for a 30,000-square-mile property, according to spokesman Abraham Idjirani of the Sulu sultanate.

Undocumented workers

Meanwhile, Malaya said the maximum number of undocumented Filipino workers here could be only 10,000, 7,000 of whom have already been repatriated back to Manila.

“This is comparatively manageable. Compared to other foreign communities here, the number of Filipino nationals is relatively small,” Malaya said, noting that Indonesians number at least two million, as do those from Myanmar and other nearby countries.

“I think we have been able to work out some modus vivendi with the authorities, wherein instead of these Filipinos being accosted, picked up and transferred and held in facilities, they would do what we call voluntary surrender and repatriation,” he added.

He said they help these undocumented Filipinos secure an exit permit, pay a much reduced fine, and after a few days they will be able to return to the Philippines.

“I think that is something very significant and our figure is that there have been only about 200 Filipinos who have been affected by the crackdown,” he said.

“The turnaround time is rather short. And it is also because when the immigration authorities asked from us travel documents, we are able to quickly provide them, so that Filipino nationals would not stay a day longer in jail than necessary,” Malaya said.