SECURITY BREACH: We must set up an informer network on remote islands off Sabah that harbour kidnappers
ANYONE even remotely familiar with the history of piracy in the Sulu Sea, and the geography of the north east coast of Sabah, will realise the enormity of the problems involved in securing that part of the country, and keeping out unwelcome pirates and kidnappers, the latter of more recent origin, principally from the island of Tawi Tawi as well as the complex maze of adjacent islands that make up the southern Philippine archipelago.
The sea between Mindanao and the east coast of Sabah has for more than 200 years been the undisputed centre of piracy and home to the Illanun and Balanini cut-throats who have continued to find the relatively defenceless north east of Sabah fertile ground of rich rewards for minimum effort.
The little town of Semporna has for decades got used to living in fear of constant pirate attacks: the worst incident that the older people still talk about took place in 1954, when pirates armed with Bren guns and other automatic weapons overwhelmed the police post, killing all the policemen before occupying the town, in an orgy of looting and killing at will, lasting several hours.
The recent abduction cases in islands off Sabah have cast our security intelligence in doubt despite security forces deployed by the Eastern Sabah Security Command.
The 1962 North Borneo Annual Report stated that "Piracy around the north east coast increased with 97 cases reported against 42 cases in 1961. There were eight killings and 45 were wounded or missing.
The police and the navy obtained convictions against four pirate crews consisting of 32 men. In all cases heavy penalties were imposed."
As we can see, piracy has been around in the Philippines for a long time.
