Malaysian police officers patrol near a village about 130 kilometers from Lahad Datu in Sabah, where followers of Sulu Sultan Jamalul Kiram III remain holed up after defying an order to leave. AP
Sen. Miriam Defensor Santiago on Friday welcomed President Aquino's move to take a sober and restrained action on the standoff in Sabah to protect the peace talks between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).
"We do not want to aggravate our neighbor, on what we call in international law, who are offering their good offices to solve our so-called Mindanao problem," she said.
"We do not want to take any step that could be interpreted as an act of not really aggression, but an act of provocation. You know, in diplomacy, we have to be extremely careful with our language. And that is what the country is doing," Santiago said.
She noted that no state wants to stage a minor warfare with another country. "It's from a cost-analysis point of view. It is not just worth the cost," Santiago said.
Informed that the Malaysian forces have attacked the royal army of the Sultanate of Sulu holed up in Lahad Datu in Sabah, Santiago said the government should be careful on threading on a foreign policy issue.
"Then we have to verify that if they have been acting on self defense. We don't really know," she said after attending the Go Negosyo's 5th Filipina Entrepreneurship Summit on Friday at the World Trade Center in Pasay City.
"We cannot really make announcements on foreign policy issues. Foreign policy issues are very, very tricky. We have to be extremely careful and that is what the Aquino administration is doing," Santiago said.
Santiago, former chairperson of the Senate committee on foreign relations, welcomed President Aquino's move to "not immediately jump on the bandwagon."
"It has taken full patience as a guideline in the propaganda concerning this controversy. I think that is a good diplomatic move," she said.
"The Aquino administration appears not to be at all hospitable to the claims of the Sultan of Sulu because even our government is not fully acquainted with the historical details of the claim. I think it is all a tempest in the teapot," Santiago added.
Santiago supported the move of President Aquino in dealing with the crisis.
"The management of this controversy has been very sober and has emphasized the democratic rather the other aspects, particularly the martial aspects of this controversy," she said.
"It is correct for the PNoy administration to adopt this restraint stance because otherwise we have to go to the International Court of Justice, which is the final tribunal for territorial disputes and that can take decades and decades," Santiago added.
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