Moro commander made permanent resident, RCI told

A rebel commander from the Philippines who is now a permanent  Malaysian resident said today he and six other commanders and officers from the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) entered Sabah in 1975.

Testifying before the royal commission of inquiry on immigrants in Sabah, Abdul Khalil Arani, who is also known as 'komander janggut' (bearded commander), said his group arrived in Sandakan, Sabah, from Mindanao in a MNLF motorboat.

"We had run out of bullets and food and we wanted to find help from a fellow Muslim nation," Khalil told the inquiry today, in reference to the civil conflict between the government of then president Ferdinand Marcos and the Muslim population of southern Philippines.

[More to follow]