PNoy faces a dilemma in Sabah

If there is anyone to blame for the mess that is happening in Sabah these days, all this points back to the British, who kept North Borneo as a British Protectorate, who then handed over sovereignty to Malaysia, its colony, when it gave independence to Malaysia on Sept.16, 1963. The British apparently did not recognize the role of the Sultan of Sulu and of Sabah, who a year earlier on Sept.11, 1962, gave sovereignty of Sabah to the Philippines in a document accepted by then Pres. Diosdado Macapagal.

I'm proud to say that when elements of the Moro National Liberation Front (MILF) returned to Sabah, I was one of the first to write about the plight of the Tausugs, because somehow we Filipinos and the rest of the world have forgotten our history and that the Sabah question was one of the unresolved problems that the Philippine government has never cared to solve. More so that all our Presidents, except for Pres. Carlos P. Garcia, came from Luzon and therefore they don't care about the Muslim question.

But today, almost all columnists from our national newspapers have been writing about Sabah… as if they were like Rip Van Winkle who just woke up from their 20-year slumber and resumed writing about this issue. Notable amongst them are my two old friends, fellow columnists from the Philippine Star, Nelson Navarro who write “Sabah on my mind” and the eminent F. Sionil Jose who wrote, “Sabah, Pax Filipinas?” Both of them wrote their respective column on Sabah last Sunday.

Allow me to give you a quote from Nelson Navarro who wrote, “I am saddened by President Aquino's harsh attitude towards Sulu activists holed up in Sabah and his insensitivity to human rights issues that seems to fall heartlessly in line with the overblown national security position of the Malaysians.” That was quite a mouthful from Nelson who actually supports Pres. PNoy.

In his column, Hindsight, F. Sionil Jose wrote, “Malaysia started supporting the Moro Rebels. Why Malaysia became an arbiter in the current Moro rebellion raises two questions. Why has Malaysia, which has a vested interest in the dispute, become an arbiter? Why did our leaders internationalize a purely domestic problem? In the first place, why is there such a problem at all?

Fr. Sionil Jose added, “The Tausugs should infiltrate Sabah. It is their right, too. If the government cannot help the Tausugs publicly, it should help them secretly. They must not let the claim be dormant merely because Malaysia is a member of ASEAN.”  Finally Sionil said, “As I said way back, weak leaders are pummeled into insignificance by history, but strong leaders make history themselves. To maintain his growing/glowing status as a leader, he must not deny the Tausugs and us-our pride and rights. He must never, never side with Malaysia at our expense.”

Today, the Sabah issue has sparked into a small armed conflict because Malaysia raided a religious leader's house and the MNLF retaliated attacking an armed convoy killing 5 Malaysian soldiers. This thing is now starting to escalate. So the question is… will Pres. Aquino side with the Filipinos or the Malaysians? What a dilemma for Pres. PNoy! Abangan!

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Kudos to the Cebu Country Club (CCC) for its historic, albeit historic back-to-back win in the two-week 66th Philippine Airlines (PAL) Interclub Golf Tournament, which finally returned to the shores of Cebu after a 12-year  absence. The CCC Team led by its President Ramontito “Tito Mon” Garcia, Gen Nagai, Marko Sarmiento, Bayani Garcia, Mark Dy, LJ Go, Andre Borromeo, Charlie Go, Eric Deen, Carl Almario and Jovi Neri. Earlier in the other week, CCC also won the Seniors Division thus making this win, a very sweet victory.

Things are indeed happening fast in CCC these days. Just over three years ago, CCC shares have dipped to a low of a million bucks per share. But as of late, it has grown to P3,700, according to the GGA Club Shares report. However, I just got a communiqué that come Friday, Mar. 8th, there will be a bidding for one share, which starts at P4 Million pesos. This bidding is not opened to the public, but to any proprietary or assignee or corporate member. It would be interesting to find out where this bidding would end because it would be the new benchmark for CCC shares.

CCC these days are in the midst of their plans for a total make over of the golf course, something that Wack Wack Golf Club or Manila Golf did a few years back, which resulted to a phenomenal increase in their golf shares. If these plans push through, the golf course will become an all-weather course, which means, regardless of the weather, golfers can play the CCC. Now people are betting that the CCC shares would follow the Manila phenomenon that means CCC shares may just climb to more than P10M after the total make over of the golf course. Wack Wack today is pegged at P18M per share. Never mind Manila Golf… it has become unreachable to the ordinary millionaires.

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