By Edu Punay
The Philippine Star
The Philippine Star
MANILA, Philippines – There was a conspiracy among leaders and followers of the Sultanate of Sulu to reclaim Sabah from Malaysia last February, the findings of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) revealed.
The NBI report, which was submitted to the Department of Justice (DOJ) following a two-month investigation, recommended the filing of criminal charges against Sulu Sultan Jamalul Kiram III together with his 38 armed followers.
The 38 were arrested last March 13 while returning to the country from Sabah.
The NBI recommended the filing of illegal possession of firearms and violation of election gun ban and Article 118 of the Revised Penal Code or inciting to war against Kiram and the 38.
The NBI said evidence showed the Kirams in Sulu and their relatives and supporters in Taguig City “had planned (the incursion) as early as November 2012.”
The NBI report, which was submitted to the office of DOJ director Martin Mendez for review last May 21, detailed how the Kirams plotted what investigators called an “adventure” to supposedly demonstrate their territorial claims over Sabah.
Mendez, however, refused to give details of the report.
The NBI report explained the Kirams and their supporters should be indicted for inciting a war with Malaysia, which had triggered clashes between the sultanate’s army and Malaysian authorities that killed several people and which also jeopardized the country’s ties with its neighbor.
Justice Secretary Leila de Lima earlier explained there is extraterritorial jurisdiction to investigate Kiram and his group under a provision of the Revised Penal Code, which applies the penal law on some crimes committed outside Philippine territory.
The NBI, however, concluded that former national security adviser Norberto Gonzales, Council for Philippine Affairs secretary-general Pastor Saycon, Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) chairman Nur Misuari, and former media man Waldy Carbonell had no role in the incursion as alleged in earlier reports.
There was no sufficient evidence to prove that any of the four financed or helped the Kirams to bring their armed followers to Sabah, according to the report.
An official privy to the probe explained to The STAR there was no proof showing Saycon, acting as an adviser of Sultan Kiram who cooperated with the NBI, had prior knowledge of the plan.
Only Saycon was invited by the NBI to shed light on the incident, while some of the members of the Kiram family, including Sultan Kiram, had been called to answer some questions but only the spokesman Abraham Idjirani appeared at the probe.
The same official said they also did not gather any evidence to implicate Gonzales, Misuari and Carbonell for the Feb. 12 incursion into Sabah by some 200 armed followers led by Agbimuddin Kiram, the sultan’s brother.
President Aquino had tasked the DOJ and the Department of Foreign Affairs to conduct a study on the validity of the Kirams’ claim to Sabah.
Idjirani, on the other hand, said Kiram and his family, along with their supporters, are ready to go to jail should the President order their arrest.
“We are ready to go to jail. This is part of the struggle to reclaim Sabah,” Idjirani declared.
The sultanate’s forces have been locked in a standoff with Malaysian security forces since they landed in Lahad Datu last Feb. 12 in their bid to stake their ancestral claim on Sabah.
The sultan’s forces shifted to guerrilla warfare against the Malaysian security forces even with some 1,000 “volunteer” fighters from the MNLF reportedly joining the fight.
– With Mike Frialde, Rey Galupo
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