MALACAÑANG said Friday the Foreign Affairs department was doing everything to help the nine Filipinos who were sentenced to death in Malaysia on Thursday for occupying and waging war in Lahad Datu, Sabah, in 2013.
“Right now the DFA is exhausting all efforts to aid those Filipinos, so basically it’s in the hands of the DFA at this stage,” Presidential Spokesman Ernesto Abella told reporters.
But Foreign Affairs said the decision of the Malaysian Court of Appeal against the nine Filipinos was not yet final, and that the Philippine government would continue to help them.
“The Court of Appeal’s decision is not yet final,” the department said. It said the court’s decision will be elevated to the Federal Court of Malaysia under automatic appeal.
On Thursday, the Court of Appeal dismissed the Filipinos’ appeal against their conviction and sentenced them to death “for waging war against the King and [being] part of the terrorist group.”
The court also affirmed the decision of the high court acquitting 13 Filipinos of various crimes related to treason and terrorism.
Justice Datuk Setia Mohd Zawawi overturned the high court’s imposition of life imprisonment on the nine Filipinos and imposed greater penalty of death.
Foreign Affairs said the Philippine Embassy in Kuala Lumpur was monitoring their case very closely.
About 200 followers of Datu Amidbahar Hushin Kiram, the son of the late Sultan of Sulu Jamalul Kiram, arrived in Lahad Datu on Feb. 9, 2013 to reclaim their “ancestral homeland.” They were led by Kiram’s brother Rajah Mudah Agbimuddin Kiram.
Some 68 Filipinos and 10 Malaysian security personnel died in the fighting.
The Kirams’ claim is based on an old document showing the Sulu Sultanate as the owner of Sabah, which was eventually leased to a British railroad company.
Britain turned the oil-rich territory to the Malaysian Federation in the 1960s, but Kuala Lumpur continues to pay an annual leasing fee to the Sultanate of Sulu.
The sultanate insists that the yearly settlement is an admission that it is the rightful owner of Sabah.