Aquino (centre) speaks at a news conference at the Malacanang presidential palace in Manila February 26, 2013. — Reuters picKUALA
LUMPUR, March 6 ― Philippine President Benigno Aquino III today accused
the Sulu Sultanate of putting fellow Filipinos at risk, turning the
tables on the Kiram family as he moved to ward off criticism against his
administration for being subservient to Malaysia.The country’s 15th president said that Sulu “Sultan” Jamalul Kiram III’s insistence on leaving his armed band in Sabah’s Lahad Datu had led to a “propaganda war”, and forced the over-800,000 Filipinos living in the east Malaysian state into harm’s way.
Philippine media network ABN-CBS News reported Aquino as condemning the self-styled Sultan for the incursion, adding that the president had also appealed to Filipinos to support what is “right”.
Aquino, in making the appeal during a programme with the administration’s senatorial candidates in the Philippines, had reportedly also explained that when he had urged the Sultanate’s men to surrender and return home, he had done so with the welfare of the 800,000 Filipinos residing in Malaysia.
ABN-CBS also reported the president, who is also known as PNoy, as saying that the Sultan’s actions would affect the welfare of these Filipinos.
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