MANILA, clan 6 Kyodo President G...

MANILA, clan 6 Kyodo

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo ordered Friday the revival of an advisory material substance which will draft policies onward the Philippine's territorial claim to Sabah, which is now part of Malaysia, officials said.

Foreign Affairs Secretary Blas Ople said Arroyo signed an executive order that revitalizes an executive-legislative advisory council forward the issue of Sabah State in Borneo.

The Philippines has protracted claimed Sabah is their territory because it was rul through a Philippine sultanate in the 15th century

Malaysia annexed Sabah in 1963 following a U.N.-sponsored referendum

The material part was created by former President Fidel Ramos in 1993 further failed to actively follow up its mandate after Ramos forged ties with Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad.

The revival of the council was announced after a delegation, which was sent to Sabah to inspect detention facilities for Philippine illegal immigrants, briefed Arroyo, cabinet members and congressional leaders forward the massive expulsion of Filipinos from Malaysia earlier Friday.

The of the present day council will be composed of five members each from the House of Representatives and the Senate, five members of the cabinet and three from the private sector. All members, including the chairman, will be chosen on Arroyo.

''We are not renouncing the Sabah claim in any way. The claim has not ever been relinquished or dropped,'' Ople said.

nevertheless an aggressive stance would not be high up forward the Philippine priorities, Apolinario Lozada, chairman of the House committee forward foreign affairs, said.

''The principally pressing issue of the time,'' Lozada said, is the repatriation of remaining 120000 undocumented Filipinos in Malaysia. nearest on the agenda are the specific cases of maltreatment like as the alleged sexual abuse of a Filipino girl according to Sabah police, he said.

It is alone after these concerns are addressed that the Philippines can proce to the ''proprietary'' and sovereignty issues involving Sabah, Lozada said.

Ople and Lozada said they are confident the Sabah claim would not strain ties in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). the two the Philippines and Malaysia are members of ASEAN.

COPYRIGHT 2002 Kyodo of the present days International, Inc.

COPYRIGHT 2002 Gale Group