Members of the Royal
Army of the Sultanate of Sulu who have been engaged in a three-week standoff
with Malaysian authorities will not be arrested despite the lapsing of the
deadline set by the Malaysian government, a television report said Thursday.
GMA News' Maki Pulido
quoted Superintendent Shamsudin Mat, chief of the Lahad Datu district police in
Sabah, as saying that Malaysian authorities will still give the Philippine
government the chance to convince the Sulu sultanate's followers to leave the
area.
The police official,
however, did not say if the Malaysian government already extended the deadline
it gave on the surrender of the Filipinos engage in the standoff, the report
added.
In a separate television
interview, Raja Muda Agbimuddin Kiram, leader of the Filipinos engaged in the
standoff, meanwhile said that his group will not resort to violence unless
provoked by Malaysian authorities.
“Kapag pumasok sila with
guns lalaban kami, but if they come peacefully, we will accept them without
guns,” Kiram said.
Around 180 of the Sulu
sultanate's followers, some reportedly armed, have been in a standoff with
Malaysian police in Sabah since early this month to assert their claim on what
they call their ancestral territory.
The Islamic sultanate,
which is based in Mindanao, once controlled parts of Borneo, including the site
of the stand-off. The sultanate's heirs have been receiving a nominal yearly
compensation package from Malaysia under a long-standing agreement for
possession of Sabah.
On Tuesday, President Benigno
Aquino III appealed to Sulu Sultan Jamalul Kiram III to order his followers to
return to the Philippines. The Philippine government has already asked Malaysia
to extend its deadline for the surrender of the Sulu sultanate's followers for
“several” more days.
Sultan Kiram, however,
maintained that his followers will not retreat unless the Philippine government
negotiates with him on his group's Sabah claims. — Andreo Calonzo/BM, GMA News
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