It’s duty of gov’t to provide legal aid to Kiram followers–Mitos Magsaysay

Milagros “Mitos” Magsaysay. RYAN LEAGOGO/INQUIRER.net

DAVAO CITY, Philippines—Despite its condemnation of the incursion into Sabah by followers of Sultan Jamalul Kiram III of Sulu, it is the obligation of the Philippine government to provide legal assistance to Filipinos who have been arrested and are facing charges of terrorism in Malaysia, a senatorial candidate said here Thursday.

Milagros “Mitos” Magsaysay, who is running under the United Nationalist Alliance, said the fact that they are Filipinos entitles them to help from the government.

The administration has been saving overseas Filipino workers convicted of crimes abroad, and it must do the same to the Filipinos involved in the Sabah row, Magsaysay said.

“Definitely, we still have to help those eight Filipinos. When there are Filipinos in China guilty of drug charges and about to be executed, we still intercede on their behalf. The Philippine government should exert all efforts in trying to help our fellow Filipinos who are being charged in Malaysian courts,” Magsaysay told reporters.

The Aquino administration has castigated the incursion into Sabah by members of the so-called “royal army” of Kiram and demanded that they surrender without conditions. But the Kirams said they were simply asserting their ownership of the east Malaysian territory.

After a standoff of several days, Malaysian security forces, backed by aerial and artillery bombardment, assaulted the ragtag band of Kiram followers, killing many of them and arresting about 10, eight of whom have reportedly been charged with terrorism.

Magsaysay said that regardless of whether these Filipino citizens are right or wrong, the government should provide them with the best lawyers to defend them.

According to her, President Aquino’s actions on this latest development would show which he values more in this issue— his fellow Filipinos or the Malaysians.

“This is where I want to see how the P-Noy administration will protect citizens. Right or wrong, it’s the government’s obligation to provide a legal team that can help them with their case in Malaysia. This is when we will know whom P-Noy loves more—Malaysians or Filipinos,” she said.

Despite saying negotiation was the way to resolve the Sabah crisis, the Aquino administration has not held talks with Kiram, who earlier said his door was open to negotiations with the government.

UNA senatorial candidate Richard Gordon said the administration could have prevented the Sabah conflict from escalating had it talked to Kiram.

“If talks had been initiated with Kiram, the trouble would not have gotten this big. That is the failure of this President. He was so single-minded he did not want to fix our countrymen’s troubles,” Gordon told reporters.

Gordon added that the administration was always trying to divert the public’s attention away from crises and problems it has failed to handle properly.

He reiterated his suspicion that the recent government commemoration of the Jabidah massacre, the 1968 massacre of Muslim recruits being trained allegedly for an invasion of Sabah, was made in order to send the message to Malaysia that the Philippines would no longer do such a thing.

“Now that we are in trouble, we could not remove them?” he said.