Lost letters in Palace hint deeper leadership problem

Michael Martinez. Astounding!

Now we know there is a problem with Malacanang’s communication system. Whether Malacanang knows that is a completely different matter.

Two letters that later on became of national, even international, importance did not reach President Aquino. The first one was a letter from the late Jamalul Kiram III sent in 2010 in the first few months of the Aquino presidency and the other one was just last year from Maria Teresa Martinez, mother of Michael Christian Martinez, the 17-year old who, for the first time, enabled the Philippine flag to fly proudly in the Winter Olympics by making it to the finals of the 2014 Winter Olympics figure skating competition in Sochi, Russia. This, despite lack of financial support from the government.

Kiram III was one of the heirs of the Sultan of Sulu, who has the title to a large part of the mineral-rich Sabah in North Borneo, which is occupied by Malaysia. The Philippines, by virtue of the authorization by the Sultan of Sulu, is claiming Sabah, which Malaysia, five decades ago, included as its territory.

Kiram III wrote Aquino asking for an appointment as he wanted to seek his help in correcting the onerous setup of Malaysia paying a measly sum for Sabah while maltreating Filipinos, hundreds and thousands of them, in the territory.

Jamalul Kiram IIINot getting any response from Malacanang , Kiram III took the matter into his hands and last year, sent his followers to Lahad Datu, a village in Sabah, which led into a bloody confrontation with Malaysian forces.

Malaysia also renewed its brutal immigration sweep forcing thousands of Filipinos out of their homes in Sabah fleeing to the sea.

Malacanang later explained that Kiram’s letter was lost “in the bureaucratic maze.”
While Kiram’s letter was delivered the traditional way, by messenger, Mrs. Martinez sent her letter by e-mail:op@gov.ph, which was opened to show the accessibility of Aquino to the public.

In an interview with Yahoo, Philippines, Martinez said, “On October 2013, I wrote the Office of the President, via email, requesting for assistance/direction on how we can inform President Aquino that my homegrown athlete son, Michael, has qualified in the 2014 Winter Olympics and that we badly need the government’s financial support.”

Communications Secretary Herminio Coloma, Jr. said they never got the letter from Mrs. Martinez and surmised that it went into the spam folder which they don’t open for security reasons.

We are using the word “surmise” because Malacanang is not sure about the “spam” excuse and is reportedly still “investigating” their non-receipt of Martinez letter.

We are wondering then, what’s really the problem in Malacanang. Is it the communications system? If the problem is competence of the people manning the communications system, maybe, maybe there is still room for improvement in the last 28 months of the Aquino presidency.

Michael Martinez proud of where he comes from.But we sense a deeper problem: The leadership’s attitude.

In the case of Kiram III, Aquino and his advisers were dismissive of Kiram III’s cause and were more concerned about not displeasing Malaysia, which brokered the peace agreement between the Philippine government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.

In the case of Martinez, Coloma said the President’s instruction was, given the government’s limited resources, “support should be prioritized for events where Filipinos athletes have a good chance of winning.”

There is something wrong with this policy. It runs counter to the essence of sports and the spirit of sportsmanship which is, in the famous words of a sportswriter, “It’s not that you won or lost but how you played the game.”

The President is duty bound to execute the laws of the land. Someone should point out to Aquino Art. XIV, Sec 19 (1) of the Constitution that states, “The State shall promote physical education and encourage sports programs, league competitions, and amateur sports including training for international competitions to foster discipline, teamwork, and excellence for the development of a healthy and alert citizenry.”

Aquino fell into saboteurs’ trap

Needs to learn the importance of right choice of words.

Malacañang believes that the occupation of the seaside village of Lahad Datu in Sabah by Rajah Mudah Agbinuddin Kiram, brother of the Sultan of Sulu, and his followers is really meant to sabotage the peace talks that his administration is conducting with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.

Reports said Malacañang suspects the national security adviser of Gloria Arroyo, Norberto Gonzales, as behind the sabotage.

The saboteur?

It is easily believable because Gonzales has deep network in Muslim Mindanao and is close to Nur Misuari, the leader of another disgruntled group, the Moro National Liberation Front.

Gonzales and Misuari’s partnership go back a long way to their special operations training days in Malaysia during the 1960’s.

When Misuari staged a rebellion in 2001. Gonzales was known to have exerted influence to allow the former governor of the Autonomous Region for Muslim Mindanao to be placed under house arrest. The case was eventually dismissed.

There are intelligence reports that Gonzales and his Jesuit priest friend have been meeting with some sectoral leaders and talking about “a revolutionary situation” under Aquino.

If Gonzales has a hand in the Sabah stand off, could Gloria Arroyo be far behind? Remember Jamalul Kiram III was in the senatorial ticket of the Arroyo administration in 2007?

If it’s true that the Sabah stand off is an act of sabotage, not only of the peace talks with the MILF, but to embarrass President Aquino who is riding high in popularity surveys, the instigators achieved their objective. Aquino fell into their trap.

No royal treatment in Malacanang event.

Aquino’s statement, which betrayed his ignorance of the root of the Sabah issue, arrogance and immaturity only deepened the “sama ng loob” that Sultan of Sulu Jamalul Kiram III, his relatives and supporters have been harboring about Aquino.

Imagine telling the Sultan and his followers asserting their right over their property in the hands of Malaysia that it is a “hopeless cause.”

It has been a series of snubs for Kiram III starting with the spurning of his request for a meeting with Aquino made at the start of the administration in 2010. Aquino said the letter was lost in the “bureaucractic maze.”

The administration officials condescending attitude towards the Kiram III and his followers is also reflected in their comments. When told about Kiram III’s complaint that he was not given a good seat during the signing of the preliminary peace agreement between the Philippine government and the MILF October last year, Presidential Spokesperson Edwin Lacierda remarked that he, himself, had no seat.

Why,is he also royalty like the Sultan? Why did he even have to insert himself into the picture?

Another official who should be told to think twice or thrice before he opens his mouth on this issue is Police Chief Alan Purisima.

Aquino wants those in the Sabah standoff to return home before he talks with Kiram III. This Purisima threatens to arrest those people. He said:“Kung may dala-dala silang armas na babalik din sa atin that is illegal possession of firearms and puwede silang arestuhin because the crime is being committed in the presence of the law enforcers.”

Kiram III made more sense with his reply, “Huhulihin pa kami at mga taong ibabalik.What kind of government is this?”

Oo nga naman, bakit sila uuwi ay huhulihin pala sila.

Who is Aquino’s adviser on Sabah issue?

Aquino to Kiram III: “….desist from this hopeless cause.”

In his Facebook wall, Cotabato-based Fr. Eliseo Mercado of the Institute for Autonomy and Governance in Notre Dame University yesterday said, “After the President’s press statement on the Sabah issue, I am continued to be deluged with question,’Who is the adviser of the President on the Sabah issue?’

“Sagot ko: Ambot… baka ang Malaysian PM. From the tone and the content would show that he/she is either Malaysian or Malaysian-Philippine.”

In his statement, which came on the second week of the standoff in Lahad Datu, a seaside village in Sabah, President Aquino several times spoke of peace. Yet, the language he used reeks of arrogance that could only come from ignorance of the root of the issue.

He described the cause that the Sultan of Sulu Jamalul Kiram III and his younger brother Prince Rajah Mudah Agbimuddin Kiram, who is the leader of the group in Lahad Datu as a “hopeless cause.”

Addressing Kiram, Aquino said: “You are a leader of your clan, and every leader seeks the well-being of his constituents. These times require you to use your influence to prevail on our countrymen to desist from this hopeless cause.”

Does this mean the Aquino government has given up the Philippine government’s claim on Sabah?

In his statement, Aquino seemed not sure about the legitimacy of the Philippine claim which was initiated in the 1963 by President Diosdado Macapagal. He said: “This issue is complex: from the basis of our claim, to the question of the rightful heirs, and even involving the translation of documents from an era when our grandparents weren’t even born.”

Princess Jacel Kiram reads statement of her father, Jamalul Kiram III

Responding to the President’s statement Kiram III, though his daughter Princess Jacel Kiram said: “ Mr. President, what more proof do you want us to show that Sabah is ours?”

This standoff came about because the heirs of the Sultan of Sulu decided to do it their way after Malacañang snubbed Kiram’s request for a meeting.

Aquino revealed this in his statement: “Let me say to Sultan Jamalul Kiram III: I have just been made aware that a letter to me, from you, was sent through OPAPP in the very first weeks of my term, when we were organizing the government. Unfortunately, this letter was lost in the bureaucratic maze. Let me make clear that there was no intention to ignore your letter. Knowing this now, will you let your mistaken belief dictate your course of action?”

Aquino also said, “The avenue of peaceful and open dialogue is still available to us. Let us therefore sit down as brothers to address your grievances in a peaceful, calm manner according to our laws and according to correct processes when your people arrive home.”

Yet in the same statement he warned Kiram that his patience is running out:

“As President and chief executor of our laws, I have tasked an investigation into possible violations of laws by you, your followers, and collaborators engaged in this foolhardy act. May I remind you as well that as a citizen of the Republic, you are bound by the constitution and its laws.

“Among your possible violations is Article II Section 2 of the Constitution, which states that the Philippines renounces war as an instrument of national policy, the enabling law of which is Article 118 of the Revised Penal Code, which punishes those who “provoke or give occasion for a war…or expose Filipino citizens to reprisals on their persons or property.”[1] Thus, you are now fully aware of the consequences of your actions.”

“We have not yet reached the point of no return, but we are fast approaching that point.”

To which Kiram stood firm: “As far as we are concerned, we haven’t committed a crime.”

But he also talked about peace: “The sultan of Sulu’s action is a benevolent aspiration and not a violent reaction to fight.”

Will the real diplomats please take over?

Read President Aquino’s statement in full here: http://www.gov.ph/2013/02/26/statement-of-president-aquino-on-the-sabah-incident-february-26-2013/

‘ Bizarre’ standoff in Sabah

Jamalul Kiram III. AP photo by Aaron Favila.

One report described the current standoff in Sabah as “bizarre”.

Bizarre indeed. The Philippines claims ownership of Sabah based on the title of the Sultan of Sulu on the territory. The heirs of Sultan of Sulu who obtained the land are taking possession of a portion of the area. The Philippine government said it has nothing to with the the action of the heirs.

The reaction of the Philippine government is bizarre if one takes it from the presumption that the Philippines is not abandoning its claim over Sabah.

But if there’s one thing that this “bizarre” incident has made clear, the Philippines is no longer interested to pursue its claim over Sabah.

The state of Sabah, with an area of 76,115 square kilometers, is the second largest member of the Federation of Malaysia. Of the more than 600,000 Filipinos in Malaysia, majority are in Sabah, most of them undocumented.

The Philippines claims ownership of Sabah based on the title of the Sultan of Sulu. Historical records state that in 1704, North Borneo, which includes Sabah, was given to the Sultan of Sulu by the Sultan of Brunei for helping him quell a rebellion.

In 1878, the Sultan of Sulu leased the territory to the British North Borneo Company. It was included when the Federation of Malaysia was formed in 1963.

The Philippine government, then under President Diosdado Macapagal brought the issue to the United Nations. In an UN-supervised referendum in 1963, majority of the people of Sabah preferred to be part of Malaysia.

But when Ferdinand Marcos became president, he tried to “retake” Sabah through Operation Merdeka which failed.

Relations between the Philippines and Malaysia became strained and only “normalized” during the administration of Fidel Ramos, who signed an agreement during a state visit to establish a consulate in Kota Kinabalu to take care of the numerous Filipinos in Sabah.

Ramos, however, was warned by his legal advisers that establishing a consulate in Sabah, which was eagerly encouraged by Malaysian officials, was tantamount to dropping the Sabah claim, which would violate the Constitution.

A consulate is established by a government only in a foreign country, not in its own territory.
Earlier, then Sen. Leticia Shahani filed a bil defining the Philippine baselines which didn’t mention Sabah. Shahani didn’t pursue the bill after it was widely criticized as an attempt to drop the Sabah claim.

The 2009 Philippine Baseline Law does not include Sabah but the Department of Foreign Affairs said “its non-inclusion in the country’s baseline does not mean dropping the Philippine claim on Sabah because it is reiterated in the new law that it does not prejudice the country’s claim to Sabah. “

Under the Estrada administration, another irritant with Malaysia arose when President Estrada received the wife of the detained Malaysia’s former Finance Minister Anwar Ibrahim during his state visit.

The idea of setting up a consulate in Kota Kinabalu was revived during the Arroyo administration, which enlisted the help of Malaysia in brokering talks with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front. But like what happened during the Ramos administration the Sabah consulate idea fizzled out.

Reports said the armed supporters of Jamalul Kiram III, the current Sultan of Sulu started arriving in the seaside village of Tanduao in Lahad Datu in Sabah Feb. 12. That was also the time that Moro National Liberation Front forces were shooting it out with Abu Sayaff and the military just shrugged it off. Bizarre.

Kiram was quoted in news reports as saying that he was prompted to send the group to Sabah after his Sultanate was left out in the framework of agreement being worked out by the government with the MILF which would establish an autonomous Muslim area in Mindanao.

Malacanang said it is not condoning what the Kiram group is doing in asserting their claim over Sabah. Palace spokespersons described the Philippine claim on Sabah as “dormant.”

Like a dormant volcano, it could wake up from its slumber and explode.

Hoping and praying that the this Sabah issue is handled intelligently and doesn’t go beyond “bizarre.”