MANILA: The military has started enforcing a naval blockade in Sulu Sea to prevent undocumented Filipinos from entering Sabah amid the continuing standoff between the followers of Sultan Jamalul Kiram III and Malaysian security forces, the Department of National Defence said yesterday.
Defence Secretary Voltaire Gazmin stressed that while the heirs of the Sultanate of Sulu may have basis in reclaiming Sabah as their ancestral land, the process they are pursuing right now is wrong. “We have put up a naval blockade in the area so that we could stop our undocumented fellow Filipinos from leaving (for Sabah),” Gazmin said.
The Philippine Navy announced earlier that it has deployed six naval gunboats in the country’s southern side as tension mounted in Sabah.
The Malaysian authorities issued an ultimatum to a group of Raja Muda Agbimuddin Kiram, to leave Lahad Datu by Friday (yesterday).
This move was apparently in response to reports that several groups of Filipino Muslims are all poised to reinforce their Tausog brothers in Sabah if Malaysia security forces will use force to dislodge them.
The Philippine Star
