I am not denying Kiram III of his Sabah claim. It is the way he presented it to the authorities, either to the Philippine government or to the Malaysian government. He could have filed his claim with the International Court of Justice. In this manner, many poor people who are not concerned with his claim would not have suffered unnecessary hardships, some of them had given their lives. If Kiram III should have been aware of the following provision in Article II, Section 2, of the Philippine Constitution and he could have spared the lives not only of his slave soldiers but also other innocent people in Sabah, most of whom are Filipinos:
Section 2. "The Philippines renounces war as an instrument of national policy, adopts the generally accepted principles of international law as part of the law of the land and adheres to the policy of peace, equality, justice, freedom, cooperation, and amity with all nations."
Unfortunately, Kiram III was a warmongerer. Instead, he wanted war to show he is a powerful man, but actually not and was afraid to die. Now that his soldiers are defeated, he is forced to call for his unilateral ceasefire. If he were winning, I don't think he will call for a ceasefire. He started the whole trouble and now that he is in real trouble he wants his opponent to stop counter-attacking him for his own fault.
What Kiram III did was to drag the Filipino people to take up arms against Malaysia to force recognition of his claim. If we will follow your loyalty to Kiram III, would you have been willing to take up arms and joined Kiram in invading Sabah? And now what happened? Because of Kiram III's precipitate act of using force in asserting his claim, many people in Sulu, Tawi-Tawi, and in Sabah who where then living there peacefully are now involved in the turmoil without their fault and displaced in their abode with great hardship. Not only that, Kiram III had many innocent people killed including his slave soldiers, whom he called "his followers willing to die to recapture his so-called "homeland" in Sabah whom he sent there have indeed given their lives not knowing that they were giving up their lives not to protect their families but the personal interest of Kiram III. If Kiram III was truly willing to die for his cause, why did he not go there in full battle gear and fought for his cause? No, Ma'am. In truth, he was a coward. Had he called you to fight for his cause, would you be willing to go to Sabah and fight for him while playing safe in the comfort of his Palace in Taguig Rizal? I doubt it.
Our trouble in analysing the situation is that we do not understand how to differentiate the interest of the poor innocent people who are now in actual trouble by the warmongering act of Kiram III and the personal interest of Kiram III for his further enrichment by means of force. In truth and in fact, those innocent people don't care of Kiram's personal interest for enrichment, do they? The poor victims, the innocent people both living in Tawi Tawi and Sabah, just wanted to live in peace without harming anybody, but Kiram III wanted to kill other people who are opposed to his claim. He did not even show his gratefulness and gratitude to the families of the slave soldiers he sent and who were killed in Sabah for his own sake. And now, he wants to use the taxes you paid to your government in picking up the bodies of his fallen slave soldiers. Would you agree to that? I think Kiram III must shoulder the expense in taking their bodies home.
Marlowe ...
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