Gordon slams govt handling of Sabah standoff

By: InterAksyon.com
March 1, 2013 3:07 PM

MANILA, Philippines -- Former Senator Richard Gordon slammed the government’s handling of the Sabah standoff, which erupted in violence on Friday, saying, “the Malaysians were allowed to think by our own authorities that Filipinos are expendable.”

Gordon, a senatorial candidate of the United Nationalist Alliance, said the government’s handling of the crisis was “severely woeful, anti Filipino, and subservient to Malaysia,” and said the firefight between followers of the sultanate of Sulu and Malaysian security forces in Lahad Datu town in Sabah “could have been avoided and should never have happened.”

“This issue should have been more carefully handled by our foreign affairs officials, but clearly foreign policy and crisis management have not been the strong suit of this administration,” Gordon said.

The family of Sulu Sultan Jamalul Kiram III said 10 of his followers were killed and four others wounded in the Friday morning clash although both Malaysian and Philippine authorities have denied any fighting or casualties.

Gordon also took the Department of Foreign Affairs to task, questioning how they handled the situation and advised President Benigno Aquino III on the Sabah issue.

He said the DFA should have taken the active role in the matter and “must never compromise the President of the Philippines by allowing him to make comments on such issues.”

“Whoever is advising the President on foreign policy matters has done terribly wrong by our people and has put us on a slippery slope with regard to this conflict,” Gordon said.

Earlier, Kiram lashed out at Aquino for ordering his investigation for possible violations of the Constitution and the Revised Penal Code, and for calling the sultanate’s efforts to press its claim to Sabah a “foolhardy” and “hopeless cause.”

Aquino had also admitted that a letter Kiram wrote him at the beginning of his presidency had been lost “in the bureaucratic maze.”

Gordon also asked how intelligence agencies failed to detect the departure for Sabah of close to 200 of the sultan’s followers.

“And what about our intelligence officials?  How is it that no one even knew that a large number of Filipinos was headed to Sabah?” he asked.