evidence: On February 9, 2013, Raja Mudah Agbimuddin Kiram, a brother of the self-claimed Sultan of Sulu, Jamalul Kiram III, with about 1000 of his followers, including 300 armed men of the Royal Security Forces of the Sultanate of Sulu and North Borneo (or Royal Army of Sulu; RAS), took ‘a journey back home’ to Sabah on small boats. The ocean borders between Sabah and the Philippines are quite porous, and in Sabah, the Government of the Philippines (GPH) estimates 600,000 Filipino are quietly living and working by crossing the Sulu Sea. Malaysian authorities gave a deadline to the Sultan Jamalul Kiram III to order his followers to return by February 22. Malaysian security forces put the RAS in a standoff. President Aquino ordered his administration to study the legal validity of Jamalul Kiram III’s claim to Sabah, and prepared to dispatch a humanitarian ship (but with no permission from Malaysia to enter Sabah). The Filipino media was in favor of saving the lives of Filipino-Sabah residents where the Philippines claim as their territory. [...] The MILF peace negotiators commented: "the Sabah issue is a security problem, not political…" and, "should be addressed at the proper international form (over the territorial dispute between the Philippines and Malaysia) for a peaceful and amicable resolution." The United States’ position is that the territory dispute between two governments could be settled through talks.