Daily Tribune on Sabah claim

First there was a denial from Malacañang that there was a firefight as well as the fighters of Kiram   being killed.
But in the aftermath of the firefight that ensued in Lahad Datu, Sabah between the Kiram clan of the Sultanate of Sulu and the Malaysian troops which resulted in a number of deaths, President Aquino and his propagandists in Malacanang were clearly trying to control the impact of shocking gunfire heard over the radio in southern Mindanao and Metro Manila.
Twelve Filipino followers of a self-proclaimed sultan died in a shootout with Malaysian security forces Friday, police told AFP after a 17-day standoff.
Sabah state police chief Hamza Taib said that in addition to two police officers killed, “three were injured and... 12 intruders died” in the firefight.
National news agency Bernama also quoted Prime Minister Najib Razak as saying he had received reports that 10 to 12 people from the armed group were killed.
Worse, Malacañang was placing all the blame on Kiram’s men, taking as gospel truth the version of Malaysia, that it was Kiram’s group that fired first.
The Malaysian Star newspaper initially reported that, at least, two police commandos were killed and four policemen injured after police started their operations on the Sulu gunmen following a standoff which started on Feb 9.
Bernama reported that the commandos were killed in a mortar attack after police moved in at the Tanduo village on Friday.
Condemning the violence that erupted in Sabah between followers of the Sultan of Sulu and Malaysian forces yesterday, UNA senatorial candidate Richard Gordon sympathized with the families of the Muslim Filipinos who have been killed and wounded in the conflict.
Gordon described the Aquino administration’s handling of the crisis in Sabah as “severely woeful, anti Filipino, and subservient to Malaysia.”
Gordon said  a bloody encounter could have been avoided and should never have happened.
He questioned the manner by which foreign affairs officials handled the situation and advised the President.
Gordon said that the DFA should be at the forefront of the matter and must never compromise the President of the Philippines by allowing him to comment on such issues.
“Should not our ambassador to Malaysia have been the one at the frontline?  Or our DFA officials?” Gordon asked.
He further questioned the lack of attention, priority and importance given to Sultan Kiram’s letters to the President.
“And what about our intelligence officials?  How is it that no one even knew that a large number of Filipinos were headed to Sabah?” Gordon continued.
“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,” he continued.
According to Gordon, the government sent the wrong signal to the Malaysian government when it portrayed the Filipinos pursuing the claim on Sabah as  common criminals. It is the president’s duty to protect its citizens everywhere.
Gordon said, “The Malaysians were allowed to think by our own authorities that Filipinos are expendable.
“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.
President Aquino who was in San Fernando City, Pampanga when the firefight took place told his audience that he was monitoring the developments in Sabah.
“Please forgive me if I do go up and down of the stage. As you know, there is something that transpired in Sabah right now. It seems it was already done,” Aquino said.
Aquino said that the  details of the firefight relayed to him are not yet officially complete as to the number of deaths.
“The details are not yet complete. We have to hurry in going back as we expect that upon our arrival  in the office, all the necessary information is already complete,” Aquino said.
Presidential deputy spokesman Abigail Valte, minutes after the firefight ensued, held a press conference in Malacañang, claiming that there was no firefight between the Kirams and the Malaysian authorities.
Valte also down played initial reports about the number of casualties and injuries in the firefight later.
“First, we would like to make it clear that there was no gunfight or a firefight happened. Second, there was someone who fired a warning shot. And the two persons were detained. But our information was that these two were returned,”  Valte said.
Valte said there was an attempt from the group to get out of their cordoned area near the security forces of Malaysians.
“So, our information and what we have verified was that there was an attempt from the Kiram group to go out of the cordoned area to get near the area of the security forces of Malaysia,” Valte said.
Three people including two police officers were killed Friday as Malaysian security forces ended a stand-off with Filipino gunmen over a territorial dispute in Sabah, the Philippine government said.
Dozens of followers of the little-known sultan of Sulu had been facing off with Malaysian police for the past two weeks, after they sailed from their homes in the southern Philippines to stake a territorial claim in Malaysian Borneo.
The 74-year-old Jamalul Kiram III says he is the head of the Islamic Sultanate of Sulu, which once controlled parts of Borneo including the site of the stand-off, as well as southern Philippine islands.
The owner of the house where the leader of the gunmen stayed during the 17-day stand-off was also killed but the nationality was not known, foreign department spokesman Raul Hernandez told reporters, citing a report by Malaysia’s ambassador.
A third Malaysian police officer was wounded after the gunmen opened fire on their van, he said.
“The Malaysian ambassador said that the rest of the Kiram group in Lahad Datu escaped and ran toward the sea,” he said, adding that 10 members of the group were arrested.
An official at the main hospital in the town of Lahad Datu near the site of the stand-off told AFP two police officers had been brought in with gunshot wounds but were in stable condition.
Hernandez said he could not confirm allegations by a Manila spokesman for the gunmen that Malaysian security forces had shot dead 10 members of the group and wounded four others.
Hernandez said Manila had formally demanded a full account of the security operation that ended the stand-off.
Kiram’s spokesman Abraham Idjirani claimed Malaysian snipers had killed 10 of the sultan’s men and wounded four other members of the group.
“I talked to (the group’s leader) by telephone just now and asked him how many of his men were martyred. He told me 10. I inquired about the wounded and he said four,” Idjirani told a news conference at Kiram’s Manila home.
Idjirani insisted Kiram’s men would continue to fight and would not leave Sabah.
The Islamic Sultanate of Sulu leased northern Borneo to Europeans in the 1870s.
While the sultanate’s authority gradually faded as Western colonial powers exerted their influence over the region, it continued to receive lease payments for Sabah.
The former British colony became part of the federation of Malaysia when it was formed in 1963.
Kiram and the other heirs of the sultan still receive nominal annual compensation from Malaysia in the equivalent of about $1,700.
Idjirani suggested last week that the men would stand down if the compensation were substantially raised.
Members of the Malaysian police assaulted the group of Raja Muda Agbimmudin Kiram, a brother of Sultan Jamalul Kiram III of Sulu, in a village they occupied in Lahad Datu, Sabah.
Malaysia says it was the Kiram group that fired first and the Palace is buying that line.
The camp of Sultan Kiram claimed that 10 of his followers were killed, including a mother of two children, while four others were wounded after Malaysian forces assaulted the Filipinos holed up in Tanduao village in Lahad Datu.
Abraham Idjirani, spokesman of the Sulu sultanate, said that firefight broke out at around 10 a.m. when members of the Malaysian police commando attacked the group of Raja Muda Agbimmudin Kiram,  who led more than 200 of their followers in occupying a village in Lahad Datu since Feb. 12.
The camp of Sultan Kiram claimed that Malaysian forces fired first at the group of Raja Muda. Idjirani said the Filipinos were subjected to sniping by the Malaysian commando.
Idjirani claimed that based on the information received from Raja Muda himself, 10 of his followers, including a 28-year-old woman with to two children, were killed while four others were wounded.
He said that only two of the fatalities were identified but he refused to identify them.
Idjirani also denied reports that Raja Muda has been wounded and arrested during the assault. He claimed that Raja Muda, who is the Crown Prince, is in constant communication with Sultan Kiram.
The DFA, in a press conference, announced that the Malaysian Embassy informed them that the standoff was over as of yesterday afternoon.
The DFA said that the Malaysian government said that the attack resulted in the killing of three people –two Malaysian police and the owner of the house occupied by Raja Muda’s group. Ten other Filipinos reportedly surrendered.
The DFA said it has yet to confirm the reported killing of 10 followers of Raja Muda.
Meanwhile, senatorial wannabe retired Maj. Gen. Ramon Montano, former chief of the defunct Philippine Constabulary, said that the Aquino government should denounce the “aggression” against the Filipinos.
“The Philippine government should condemn the use of military force and aggression to resolve the issue,” said Montano.
With Mario J. Mallari