Why are they treated as second class humans with reports of abuse, imprisonment, starvation, and deportation of Filipino workers? The Filipinos account for 30% of Sabah's population with many (500,000) considered as illegal immigrants or so called 'illegal immigrants?' But please define 'illegal immigrants' regarding the Filipino population in Sabah. But these Filipinos have been involved in the fluid migrations of people in that part of the world for more than a thousand years long before the modern borders were crafted. And so these Filipinos are no less Sabahn's than the modernly called Malaysians.

Sakim, this is a problem the world over. Fighting for resources, jobs, food, housing. Natives feel aggrieved for being pushed out of their rights by someone who does not belong to the tribe. It is tribalism

Perhaps, Filipinos would be more acceptable if they became Sabah citizens, Spoke the local language, worshipped the same way as the Sabahians do, and gave up their Filipino identities, take on Sabah names and identities. Then in a few generations they are Sabahian people and the trouble will disappear?

that's a very valid question. i see it that since they are in fact war refugees from Mindanao, the malaysian authorities will take advantage of their plight (even though the refugees are especially close related through language & religion.) on the other hand, maybe malaysia is just being very vigilant (remember, the Sultan, Marcos, Our Claim, the "Jabidah Massacre" etc).

OK defined war refugee? Are the country of Filipina at war with this so call refugee? Or they are mainly economic refugee? Does the country of Filipina help the need of these people? What are the social and economic impact on Sabah due to these refugee? It is easy to blame but looking on the ground they are in fact creating anarchy and probable future chaos in Sabah.

Why do Luzonian and whatever Filipinas didn't offer assistance for them to move to Luzon island or other island temporarily until situation settle down.

ha..ha..ha.. majority of Sabahan native don't even consider Malay as their native tongue they in fact have their own languagea and majority aren't even muslim get you fact straight it show lack of knowledge on social and economic situation in Sabah your closes neighbour.

wikipedia states ( and i knew it beforehand as well) that 67 % are Muslims. and that the badjau people who are living on both sides of the border make up the 2nd largest linguistic / ethnic group there. BTW there is no "Luzonian"-Filipino , unless you have been reading to many of Suzuka00 posts, but he always says that he's writing "virtual history" anyway.

Yes, it's sad that the Filipino government is fighting with different groups in the Southern Philippines. Hopefully, order will be restored some time soon, so that the refugees can return.

You are as clueless about us Filipinos as we are of you Sabahans.

The country is Philippines brother and the people are Filipinos okay... We know that you are not ethnic Malays but you are Malaysians. You speak a Malayo-Polynesian dialect as we do.

Anarchy and future chaos in Sabah you say? There is nothing in Sabah before these Mindanaoan people came to Sabahan shores, because they are you. You are the one who does not understand that these refugees are your distant cousins, they may be Muslims and you are Christians but these refugees are once part of the Sultanate of Sulu, Tawi-Tawi and North Borneo as well as you, present Sabahans. Their only misfortune is, during the colonial times, they are not primitive tribal folks seeking refuge in the forest when they see white foreigners. They fought everyone head-on creating the background of their misfortunes.Go ahead brother, show them your doorway out. Show them how Christian you are...hahaha.

Meanwhile you forget that these Minadanaoan Filipinos operate your factories, teach you how to farm, help you connect to the outside world and even on how to be street savy. Let them all return to Mindanao and leave Sabah as it was before. A sea of green gloomy wet forest.

Yes we do take in refugees from Mindanao and Sulu to Luzon and Visayas...in fact there were some muslim people from Mindanao who r living in my hometown in the Visayas(Central Philippines)

But Sabah after all is part of the homeland of one of the muslim ethnic groups from Sulu.....so why should they leave???

The people I said who are Luzon People are the mainstream filipino group which includes majority of the tribes(ilocanos,visayans,ivatans,iranuns etc..) basically they are the Han Chinese of the philippines and they speak the idioms in the philippine language group which the bajaus and certain minorities in palawan(the dayaks) and mindanao(the sangil from sanghe) don't belong to,their cultural artefact or pottery is called as Luzon Tsubo by the japanese so I call them Luzon people,there are also couple of other names for these people...


Actually Tausugs are actually Visayans or Visayan related,I wonder if Tausugs might use the maragtas legend of the visayans in order to justify the sabah claim,mainstream filipinos have many legends that connect them with the melayu(the group that include minangbangkau) of sumatra and borneo,whom they had good relations with...

The original people of sabah are the dayaks...

Our Austronesian ancestors probably didn't have a "Masculine" concept of territorial ownerships and probably had concept akin to the Feminine or indigenous concept, the whole owned holistically by everybody. Western ideas of Political boundaries or territorial limits, wars for supremacy, empire building, etc could have been introduced or borrowed from the Hindu Aryans.
And later on more pronounced during the Islamization of Southeast Asia but again the influence was via the Subcontinental India. Islam practiced before was more of the Indian-Persian type rather than directly from the Arabs and was only later that the latter had influence. Islamization and the concept of formation of Sultanates started first from Aceh in Sumatra, then radiating from there.

So, before Islamization and even unto this day, the Dayaks coexist peacefully with the Bruneian Bisayans without having any territorial disputes etc. Or the headhunting mountaineers could have simply terrorized the lowlanders, that the lowlanders let them be on their own ancestral domain. But, the lowlanders were just greedy landgrabbers so they include the ancestral domains of the indigenous people as their own on "legal" papers or "western legal technicalities". Just like the head-hunting and the feared Zambals and Aetas terrorized the lowland Kapampangans accdg to the early Spanish chronicles and occupied ancestrally the mountain ranges of both sides of the Centrla Luzon plains. But the greedy lowlanders represented by a Fernando Malang Balagtas who wrote the "Will of Pansonum" and he claimed everything.

So, Sabah belongs to everybody. But legally speaking that is a different matter. And the Philippines acting for the Sultanate of Sulu have a strong case in international courts.

Quoting from a Manila Bay Watch...

All I can say is this - you can claim Sabah and all that, but do Sabahans want to be a part of the Philippines, or will there be a protest? And can the Philippines manage its new territory, flaws and all?

I'm saying this because it is my belief that a small, stable country is much more important than a large juggernaut of problems. If the Philippines want to pursue the Sabah issue, I would say it's better if the nation finds more stable grounds for itself first and prove that it can provide the Sabahans a good quality of life.

What one must understand is that after being under one country for a long time, the transition to a new one will not necessarily be easy.


Anyway, to address Sakim's issue:



Indeed I myself as a Malaysian am not happy with the treatment of the Filipinos there. Illegal or not a human should be treated as a human, and if found wrong should be shown the door in the most humanly way. It is an issue widely discussed here as well, but I don't think there has been any major steps to address this problem.

However I don't really agree with the second part about fluid migrations and what not... yes Filipinos have been moving around this region before modern borders were crafted and so have other regional natives, but then again these movements are reflected in many other parts of the world. As nations are built and borders solidified there has to be some rules and regulations as to who are legal residents and who are not, for the sake of standardisation and better management. I know you Filipinos are still debating about the Sabah issue but Sabah is generally recognised as a part of Malaysia unless officially and finally proven otherwise and validated internationally. So as long as you enter what is officially recognised as Malaysian territory without valid documents, you are illegal. If you want to be legal you are always welcomed to seek citizenship or permanent residence.

Land matters whether it is leasehold or freehold, only the state government has the power to determine it.. which means that only local people can determine the title..

It is the same all over Malaysia.. land issues are state's matters.. not the federal power..

For instance, people from Kuala Lumpur cannot buy land in Kelantan unless the KLites can show the prove he/she is a Kelantanese decendants or have bbeen staying in Kelantan more than 20 years..

Same goes to Sabah.. Me, i'm from peninsular Malaysia and i couldn't buy any land Sabah.. Sabah land is only for Sabahan.. This is clearly stated in Sabah Land Enactment..

BTW, is it the Phililipine govt doesn't really recognize the Sulu Sultanate?
But the Phililipine govt is using the Sulu's Sultanate Issue to claim Sabah.. Interesting..
I think its better for Phillipine govt to give autonomus power to Sultan of Sulu before they start to claim Sabah..

The Filipinos want to escape dismal condition of their own country. they are desperate and this complains about abuse and deportations and watsoever are the plight of the desperate peoples. if the wheel is turn, Philipines is a properous country and malaysia is a poor country, i'm very sure that any Sabah immigrants that crossed to Philipines would've been dealt with in the same way.



Sultanate of Sulu are no longer exist. only the descendent remains. their power as a governing bodies are no longer there. Whatever treaty sign by the sulu sultanate are null and void as soon as the sultanate was abolish of it's ruling power.