MANILA - Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. on Friday said Filipinos leaving Sabah due to the COVID-19 pandemic should not be called repatriates.
In a virtual interview on "Usapang Community Quarantine" by former diplomatic beat reporter Malou Talosig-Bartolome, the top Philippine diplomat said the virus crisis should not be politicized amid a long-standing dispute over Sabah, a territory east of Malaysia’s northern Borneo and southwest of the Philippines' Sulu.
"You just say you're moving Filipinos from one place to the other. Don't you dare call them that and he has not."Locsin said those facilitating the transfer of Filipinos from Sabah were the United Nations Development Programme and International Organization for Migration . "Let's not use the misery of people regardless of nationality as an excuse to assert something that might piss me off."
Hishammuddin criticized Locsin's statement as "irresponsible," threatening it could affect bilateral ties of both nations. He also maintained that "Sabah is, and will always be, part of Malaysia."
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