MinDA chair denies proposing a consulate in Kota Kinabalu

DAVAO CITY — Mindanao Development Authority (MinDA) chair Abul Khayr Alonto denied on Saturday he proposed the establishment of a consular office in Kota Kinabalu in Sabah, Malaysia, to provide assistance to undocumented Filipinos.

Alonto was reacting to a report last April 22, citing a tweet from Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. who called such a proposal from a senior official of the Duterte administration, apparently referring to Alonto, as “treason.”

In a statement, Alonto said what he proposed was not a consulate but a cultural office to implement initiatives and programs to strengthen cultural ties between Filipinos and Malaysians who share the same historical origins and cultural affinity.

“A Cultural Office could also serve as a mechanism to assist Filipinos working and living in North Borneo, particularly providing them with social services that they currently do not have due to the standing claim of the Philippines on Sabah,” he said.

Alonto said he never made a statement that he would leave it to “the Malaysian Foreign Ministry to convey the message that Sabah was an independent entity within Malaysia and that the Philippines should drop its claim on Sabah.”

He admitted however, that as the Philippine Signing official for the Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Philippines-East ASEAN Growth Area (BIMP-EAGA), he met with Sabah Chief Minister Datuk Seri Mohd Shafie Apdal in September 2018 in Kota Kinabalu to push for the revival of the barter trade system in Mindanao and to sustain the transport connectivity between Sabah and Mindanao.

“I recall that my meeting with the Sabah Chief Minister was closed-door and a private one. Our discussion focused on mechanisms that could sustain the sea and air transport linkages between Sabah and Mindanao, including Palawan, as well as reviving the centuries-old barter trade system in our border areas,” he said.

Alonto said the plight of the several undocumented Filipinos living in Sabah was taken up in his meeting with the Apdal aside from discussions on the joint efforts to promote trade and tourism activities and provide sustainable income and livelihood to poor communities to help secure the porous island regions of Sabah, Mindanao, and Palawan from terrorist threats and other criminal/ illegal activities.

“It was my view that a large number of our undocumented Filipinos need to be assisted. However, I underscored that this effort had not been easy through the years considering the political implication of such action to our national policy. I merely stated that I will work this out with our Foreign Affairs Ministry,” he said.

He said MinDA had endorsed a board resolution urging Locsin to approve the signing of the BIMP-EAGA Facilitation Center document and to do a study on the proposed establishment of the Cultural Office in Kota Kinabalu.”

The institutionalization of the BIMPEAGA Facilitation Center (BIMP-FC), the Central Secretariat of BIMP-EAGA based in Kota Kinabalu, remains subject to due diligence, according to Locsin.