 |
| Philippines’ defence secretary Delfin Lorenzana has denied a news report of an alleged plan by militia based in the southern Philippines to invade Sabah. (Facebook pic) |
PETALING JAYA: Manila has denied a report of an alleged plan to invade Sabah by militia from the southern Philippines, with its defence secretary Delfin Lorenzana labelling it as “fake news”.
Meanwhile, Jerrica Angela Manongdo, a spokesperson for the Philippine military in Sulu, said the media report had “no basis”, Arab News reported.
Manongdo also said while local officials in Sulu had indeed held a meeting earlier this month, it revolved around strengthening the archipelago’s maritime borders and disaster response.
“Local chief executives are in charge of recruitment of fishermen or seafarer volunteers to conduct maritime patrols in collaboration with the military in Sulu to help improve border control against terrorists and any other lawless elements,” she was quoted by the Riyadh-based daily as saying.
Manongdo went on to say that they didn’t know the motive behind such reports.
The South China Morning Post recently reported that there was a secret meeting among 19 mayors of the Sulu archipelago to discuss plans to invade Sabah.
Quoting a senior regional security source, the meeting is said to have taken place on Dec 1 and conducted by “a locally elected official of Sulu province”.
It supposedly involved talks about recruiting up to 600 men in order to establish a “Royal Sulu Army”.
Sabah police chief Idris Abdullah rubbished the report, adding that as the Philippines was preparing to hold its presidential election, all sorts of “untrue” stories were bound to surface during this period.
In 2013, more than 200 armed militants from Sulu set out from Jolo in the southern Philippines and landed on Sabah’s east coast Lahad Datu district to reclaim the land which they claimed still belonged to the Sulu.
The conflict lasted two months and there were casualties on both sides.
Source: Free Malaysia Today
Post a Comment