Agonizing moments at the DFA over Sabah

When some 30 concerned citizens met before the Holy Week to discuss the appeal to the United Nations for help for Filipinos in Sabah who are being maltreated by Malaysian authorities, they decided they would do it as private citizens and not waste their time getting the support of the Philippine government.

Of course, the petition would have carried more weight if it were the government seeking international intervention for its people, which should be the case because the government exists for its people.

In fact, it is in the Constitution’s Declaration of Principles and State Policies that (Art. II, Sec. 4) The prime duty of the Government is to serve and protect the people.”

But how can they involve the government when President Aquino has shown deep hostility towards Jamalul Kiram III and his followers, whom he blames for igniting the clashes in Sabah which are now displacing thousands of Filipinos. Reports have placed the dead to 60.

The people who were in that meeting discussed with extreme puzzlement and deep pain Aquino’s cavalier attitude towards the “loss” of the letters of Kiram III, who claims to be the current Sultan of Sulu, requesting for a meeting with him and his combative warning of “Surrender now without conditions” to Kiram’s followers.

They took note that while Malacañang was quick to respond to UN statements on international issues including the threat of North Korea, it ignored the March 6 call of UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon urging all parties involved in the Sabah crisis to stop the violence and start dialogue for a peaceful resolution.

Kiram III ordered his forces in Lahad Datu to enforce a unilateral ceasefire. Malaysia rejected the call. Malacañang’s response? Deadma.

Many are wondering where is the Department of Foreign Affairs in this mess that involves relations with a fellow member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations?

These are trying times for people in the DFA.

Four days after Ban Ki-moon’s call, the DFA issued a statement expressing “grave concern ….on the alleged rounding up of community members of Suluk/Tausug descent in Lahad Datu and other areas in Sabah and the alleged violations of human rights reported in the media by some Filipinos who arrived in Sulu and Tawi-Tawi from Sabah.”

That was a Sunday. We learned from a reliable source that a few hours after DFA issued that statement, Presidential Spokesman Edwin Lacierda called up Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario and told him about the President’s displeasure over his statement on the reported violations by Malaysian authorities of the human rights of Filipinos.

Del Rosario told Lacierda that if the President no longer has confidence on him, he is willing to resign. We don’t know if Lacierda relayed Del Rosario’s reply to the President.

Four days after, when asked about the lack of action by the Philippines against Malaysia, DFA Spokesman Raul Hernandez said the burden of proof on the reported human rights violations by Malaysian authorities against Filipinos should be on media who reported it.

Hah???

Hernandez is a competent foreign service officer and we sympathize with him that he is forced to mouth those senseless lines.

We’d like to remind those who told him to say that, that media’s role is to report as accurately as we can what needs to be reported. It is not our job to gather evidence that would be used in court. That’s the job of the government and it has the resources and the manpower to do that, if it wants to.

We sympathize with the DFA officers who had to suffer the mocking attitude of the Malaysian ambassador every time they delivered a note verbale regarding access to Filipinos in Sabah. We doubt if Del Rosario ever submitted to Malacañang the recommendation given to him by his officers that they can take Malaysia to the UN for the maltreatment of Filipinos in Sabah. They said the reported bombing in Lahad Datu was a “disproportionate use of force” which is against international humanitarian law.

The recommendation included a warning on the effect of that move to the peace talks with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front that is being brokered by Malaysia.

The result of that pre-Holy Week meeting by concerned citizens was the filing today with the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navanethem Pillay and UN High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres, both based in Geneva, Switzerland separate appeals for them to “urgently intervene so that Malaysia will respect the human rights of the Filipinos in Sabah, recognized under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.”

The signatories include civil society groups led by the Concerned Citizens Movement, CenterLaw, Bagong Alyansang Makabayan, and Anakbayan.

Among the individual signatories are human rights lawyer Harry Roque, activist nun Sr. Mary John Mananzan, whistleblower Rodolfo “Jun” Lozada, journalist Vergel Santos, and political strategist Pastor Saycon, who serves as adviser to Jamalul Kiram III, one of the heirs of the Sultan of Sulu.