Kirams to be summoned on role in Sabah standoff

MANILA (Updated) -- Key members of the Sultanate of Sulu are set to appear on Thursday and Friday at the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) to shed light on their involvement in the ongoing standoff in Sabah.

Summonses have been issued on Tuesday by the NBI to Sulu Sultan Jamalul Kiram III, Princess Jacel Kiram, Esmail Kiram, Fatima Kiram, and Abraham Idjirani, the spokesperson of the clan whose followers engaged in a deadly gun battle in recent days for trying to reclaim the resource-rich territory.

Except for Jacel and Idjirani who will appear before the NBI technical and intelligence division on Thursday, the rest will be grilled beginning at 10 a.m. Friday by the agency's anti-organized crime unit. Their statements will be used to determine possible cases to be filed against the Sultanate and its alleged conspirators.

Earlier in the day, Kiram's supposed adviser Pastor Boy Saycon denied there was a conspiracy to destabilize the Aquino administration by reviving the Sabah claim through an incursion by Kiram's royal security forces.

He said he received information that Presidential Communications Development and Strategic Planning Office Secretary Ricky Carandang peddled the conspiracy angle to members of foreign wire agencies in a meeting in Malacañang.

"There is conspiracy but actually to sell a fabricated conspiracy by the government to get away with the issue of its bungled handling of the situation in Sabah, where some of our compatriots had been killed or are continuously suffering (from the crackdown of Malaysian authorities)," Saycon told reporters.

Saycon, secretary general of the Council for Philippine Affairs, said he has been giving advice to the Kiram family to strengthen their claim before the United Nations for the last 15 years.

The NBI also sent a subpoena to Norberto Gonzales, national security adviser to then President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, after meeting Kiram in his home in Taguig City. Jacel had said that Gonzales was a family friend.

A source, meanwhile, said Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) chairman Nur Misuari will be summoned as well despite his earlier admission that he never financed the operation to snatch Sabah from Malaysia.

In an interview, Misuari said he will turn down the invitation since he is busy preparing for the MNLF's 45th anniversary on March 18.

"They should come to Mindanao if they really want to see me. I have so many things to do," he said.

The MNLF leader said the current probe is a witchhunt or a form of a diversionary tactic.

"I think our government is the one conspiring with Malaysia. They will only provoke war and hostilities in Mindanao," he said.

For his part, Idjirani dismissed claims that the probe is unnecessary since cases will be filed anyway against Kiram and his allies.

"The government just want to know the truth," he said in a text message to Sun.Star.

The NBI has not set a deadline to wrap up the inquiry. (Virgil Lopez/Sunnex)