04月15日

The Sabah Situation

(The information in this article is based primarily on Philippine media reporting.) On February 9, 2013, Raja Mudah Agbimuddin Kiram, a brother of the self-claimed Sultan of Sulu, Jamalul Kiram III, with about 1000 of his followers, including 300 armed men of the Royal Security Forces of the Sultanate of Sulu and North Borneo (or Royal Army of Sulu; RAS), took ‘a journey back home’ to Sabah on small boats. The ocean borders between Sabah and the Philippines are quite porous, and in Sabah, the Government of the Philippines (GPH) estimates 600,000 Filipino are quietly living and working by crossing the Sulu Sea.