Roxas assures public President sensitive to safety and livelihood of 800,000 Filipinos in Sabah

Interior and Local Government Sec. Mar Roxas on Tuesday said that the government is sensitive to the safety and livelihood of more than 800,000 Filipinos now living or working in Sabah, including the Sulu Royal Army who are now being chased by Malaysian authorities.

Hundreds of Filipinos have started to flee Lahad Datu using small bancas because of the escalating conflict. Some evacuees claimed that Malaysian soldiers and policemen are having a shooting spree in palm farm areas even though they have not seen that there are armed enemies.

"[The President's] primordial concern is the safety of Filipinos and the livelihood of the Filipinos there. Let us separate the claim of the family from the situation that is dangerous and life-threatening and livelihood-threatening for those in Sabah," Roxas told reporters in a press briefing.

The secretary assured evacuees arriving in Sulu and in Zamboanga have sufficient food supply.

Aside from Roxas, other cabinet secretaries who had a round table discussion to thresh out Sabah problems of evacuees were Social Welfare Development Sec. Dinky Soliman and Agriculture Sec. Proceso Alcala.

"The President is on top of the situation," Roxas assured the public as they are also addressing all concerns of evacuees who escaped from Sabah.

Secretary Alcala said the government has been continuously sending supplies to various parts of Mindanao where Filipino evacuees from Sabah have been arriving.

He said that the department is looking at sending about 100,000 sacks of rice coming from National Capital Region and Region 4.

Roxas said that to ensure that the food and water supply reaches their destination in Sulu, Basilan and Tawi-tawi, the Maritime Industry Authority will tap the services of various commercial shipping firms to deliver the goods to these areas.

Marina administrator Nic Conti said that aside from delivering other logistics and supply to the affected areas, the commercial sea vessels will also ferry people who want to go back to their relatives in Mindanao.

Sec. Soliman denied that there is an existing humanitarian crisis in Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-tawi which is the concentration of evacuees from Sabah.

Soliman said that it only happens that some deportees arrived with evacuees.

She recalled that in the past three months, she only knows two instances of deportation from Sabah. They are undocumented Filipinos who enter Malaysia.

Since Friday, there around 1,500 evacuees arrived in Sulu, Basilan, Tawi-tawi and Zamboanga.

For his part, Sulu sultanate spokesman Abraham Idjirani said Esmail has yet to brief Jamalul Kiram 3rd about the details of his meeting with Roxas.

He confirmed Raja Muda Agbimuddin Kiram and his men are still hiding in Lahad Datu after allegedly escaping a raid by Malaysian security forces. (PNA)