Office of the President of the Philippines
Manila
Coded
To Ambassador [Modesto] Farolan
Djakarta Indonesia
For the Philippines to accept the proposal to drop the claim to Sabah after illegal attacks on Philippine territory by Malaysian-trained soldiers with Malaysian equipment and weapons is to legalize and justify such attacks. It would thus encourage farther aggression and endanger the unity and harmony of ASEAN [Association of Southeast Asian Nations]. In the longer run to let Malaysia not only get away with this type of external aggression but to be rewarded for it is to endanger the peace of Southeast Asia.
Malaysia should therefore first explain the attacks to the satisfaction of the Philippines, withdraw the men and weapons infected injected into the Philippine territory before we talk of the Philippine claim to Sabah. From our point of view this is the only reasonable basis for a summit meeting with Malaysia.
The alternative is to postpone such meeting until the Philippines can liquidate the insurgency problem in Mindanao and Sulu and take such other courses of action as may be open to her.
This is an undated coded letter to Philippine Ambassador to Indonesia Modesto Farolan, found in the April 1973 PCGG PDF.