March 20, 2013 1:41 PM
MANILA, Philippines - UNA Senatorial candidate Richard Gordon Wednesday questioned the timing of the government’s commemoration of the Jabidah Massacre in Corregidor Island, even as the bloody standoff in Sabah had not been resolved.
Gordon said commemorating the bloodbath that happened 45 years ago is very suspicious and only appears to be the government’s attempt at covering its blunder in handling the present crisis involving the oil-rich territory, which the sultanate of Sulu is trying to reclaim as its homeland, following decades of benign neglect by several Philippine presidents.
"Why is the government only [marking Jabidah] now? It’s been three years since President Aquino assumed the presidency and he could have started doing it on his first or second year. The timing is very suspicious and awkward. Are we doing it now because we have a problem with Malaysia? Because the government committed a monumental blunder in the manner that the issue has been handled? Is the President trying to assuage the hurt of the people whose kin were killed in Sabah – is this why he is now trying to resurrect something that has not been proven?” he pointed out.
By the phrase “not proven,” Gordon was apparently referring to contradictory accounts through the years of what really happened in Corregidor island, what the real mission was, and how many were killed. One version, peddled by then opposition senator Ninoy Aquino, the incumbent’s father, was that the military handlers of Muslim recruits massacred them after they mutinied and refused to proceed with the “mission,” supposedly because they did not want to kill fellow Muslims in Malaysia. The alleged mission was to reclaim Sabah through an invasion called Oplan Merdeka.
But one version says the recruits mutinied after their allowances were hijacked by corrupt officials, and had nothing to do with the recruits balking at killing fellow Muslims in Malaysia. Still, the incident lit the fuse of the Muslim insurgency, giving rise to the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), which was subsequently given material assistance and training space in Sabah by Kuala Lumpur, in apparent revenge against the government of then President Ferdinand Marcos.
Ironically, the MNLF that received material support from Malaysia for years is now accused of having prodded Sulu Sultan Jamalul Kiram III to sanction the sending of hundreds of followers to Sabah last Feb. 12. MNLF founding chairman
Nur Misuari denied the accusation of agitating the sultanate, but said MNLF members cannot be stopped from going to Sabah now to avenge the death of Tausug relatives in the hands of Malaysian forces. Over 60 people have died, mostly sultanate followers, since a combined Malaysian police-military force opened fire on March 1.
Mixed signals wrong
Meanwhile, former senator Gordon also slammed President Benigno Aquino III for sending out mixed signals in going to Corregidor to lead the commemoration rites, because it constitutes an admission that the late President Marcos was really going to invade Sabah and the Aquino administration is now bending over backwards to placate Malaysia over the present standoff in the disputed territory.
"The President’s actuation is sending mixed signals. Are we admitting by his going there that President Marcos was really going to invade Sabah when it has not been proven? As I understand it, then Sen. Benigno Aquino Jr.’s expose gave Malaysia an excuse to intervene in the crisis in Mindanao and it only got people killed. There is no proof that the Moro Muslims were training in Corregidor in preparation for a Sabah invasion. They launched a mutiny because they were not paid and could not send money to their families in Mindanao,” the UNA candidate pointed out.
"By going there, aren’t we over-bending too much to Malaysia? Do we have to prostrate ourselves before the Malaysians by attaching so much significance to the Jabidah massacre? It is practically a ploy to indict the Sultan of Sulu and his followers and condemn their having gone to Sabah as if they were bereft of any justification for doing so,” he added.
Gordon stressed that the issue here is the Philippine claim to Sabah and the President’s actuations are only lessening our claim to it, first by ignoring Sultan Kiram’s communications regarding his family’s historical claim to Sabah including grievances of Sultan Kiram, leaving them out in the negotiations for lasting peace in Mindanao and by practically calling them outlaws, thus getting them killed.
"The president ignored Sultan Kiram’s letters and his group was not consulted and were not made a part of the peace process. They were left hanging which was why they were forced to go to Sabah to make a stand. Their family’s claim is the historical basis of our country’s claim,” he said.
The UNA bet noted that the country wants peace and that it is right to commiserate with the families of the Jabidah massacre victims, but the government should be careful in making actuations that could weaken the country’s claim.
"We are commiserating with the families of the victims and we want peace. But the President is promoting peace at the expense of the lives and dignity of the people who were killed in the Jabidah massacre. We should be careful in our actuations, the government has already committed a blunder in handling the Sabah issue, let us not add to it,” he said.
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