Followers of Filipino sultan at point of no return: Benigno Aquino
President Aquino tells Filipinos occupying part of Malaysia that unless they withdraw peaceably they will face legal action – or worse
President Benigno Aquino asked a royal clan leader in the southern Philippines to order his followers to withdraw as soon as possible from Malaysian land they claim as their own, warning yesterday of legal action or violence as they approach a "point of no return".
Speaking on national television, Aquino told Sultan Jamalul Kiram that his group of 180 followers led by his younger brother and including up to 30 armed men was risking a violent end to a two-week stand-off. Kiram's sultanate has been claiming the land in a coastal village in Lahad Datu district in Malaysia's Sabah state for nearly a century.
"We have not yet reached the point of no return, but we are fast approaching that point," Aquino said, calling the incursion by Kiram's followers a "foolhardy act" that was bound to fail.
Aquino's remarks elevated the Sabah territorial issue, which has been a thorn in Philippine-Malaysian relations for decades, to a Philippine national-security concern. The crisis erupted at a crucial stage of peace negotiations - brokered by Malaysia - between the Philippine government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front rebel group.
Kiram's Muslim followers secretly travelled by boat early this month to Lahad Datu, where he said many of their Filipino relatives had resettled for years, to fortify his clan's claims on Sabah.
Malaysian authorities, however, regard them as armed intruders and ordered them to immediately leave or face eviction. Malaysian police have surrounded Kiram's followers in Lahad Datu and gave them until late yesterday to leave, suggesting they would be forcibly removed.