MANILA - Philippine Foreign Secretary Blas Ople criticized politicians for stirring up calls to revive Manila's claim to Sabah state after Malaysia deported thousands of illegal Filipino migrants.

"The emotional passions generated by the mass deportation crisis from Sabah, which some politicians are exacerbating to their own interest, are again bringing to the fore the latent issues on Sabah," he wrote in the Manila Bulletin on Sunday.

"I personally believe that there is no substitute for patient diplomacy to resolve these issues and that irrational passions on both sides of the Sulu Sea should be held in check."

Manila has a longstanding claim on the resources-rich eastern Malaysian state, which it says was part of the Islamic sultanate of Sulu in the southern Philippines before Malaysia obtained independence.

Ople recalled that a decision by former president Fidel Ramos in 1993 to put claim on the "backburner", while not formally relinquishing it, had "inaugurated, as Ramos intended, a new era of Philippine-Malaysian relations."

Bungled plot

He said a bungled plot by former dictator Ferdinand Marcos more than 30 years ago to use force to regain Sabah had provoked Kuala Lumpur into "helping inflame the Moro separatist movement" in the southern Philippines.

When the Filipino Muslim strike force for the plot rebelled, the military massacred all but one who escaped and spilled the beans to the Philippine Senate, he said.

The massacre "demonstrated the folly of a war-like attitude towards Sabah. Neither does political bravado substitute for a foreign policy," Ople said.

In Kuala Lumpur on Saturday, Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said Malaysia would temporarily halt the deportation of illegal Filipino workers to clear up claims they are being mistreated.

Malaysia last month introduced new penalties including jail terms and whipping for illegal immigrants.— AFP