PHILIPPINE President Benigno Aquino has warned a sultan he would face the "full force of the law" unless he withdraws his gunmen from Malaysia, but the elderly ruler remained defiant.
Dozens of followers of the little-known Sultan of Sulu have been facing off with Malaysian security forces for two weeks, after they sailed from remote southern Philippine islands two weeks ago to stake a territorial claim.
With the incident causing increasing embarrassment to the Philippine government, Aquino made a nationally televised address on Tuesday to try to pressure the sultan into bringing his gunmen back from Malaysia's Sabah state.
"If you choose not to co-operate, the full force of the laws of the state will be used to achieve justice for all who have been put in harm's way," Aquino said.
"This is a situation that cannot persist. If you are truly the leader of your people, you should be one with us in ordering your followers to return home peacefully."
Aquino, flanked by his interior and justice secretaries, also warned the sultan that he may have broken laws, including one banning citizens from inciting war that carries a maximum prison term of 12 years.
But the 74-year-old sultan, Jamalul Kiram III, showed no signs of buckling, calling a press conference from his home in a poor Muslim enclave of Manila to insist the stand-off would continue unless his demands were met.
"As far as we are concerned we have not committed (a) crime," Kiram said, adding his followers cornered in a fishing village in Sabah on Borneo island would not initiate any violence with the Malaysian security forces.
"But we are prepared to defend our lives and aspirations."
Kiram says he is the head of the Islamic Sultanate of Sulu, which once controlled parts of Borneo including the site of the stand-off, as well as southern Philippine islands.
The sultanate leased northern Borneo to Europeans in the 1870s. While the sultanate's authority gradually faded as Western colonial powers exerted their influence over the region, it continued to receive lease payments for Sabah.
Kiram and his family, as heirs to the sultanate, still receive nominal annual compensation from Malaysia and they want more money.
Kiram said the gunmen would only lay down their arms if the Philippines and Malaysia agreed to negotiate terms for joint development of Sabah.
Pressed on details of the proposed development, Kiram's adviser Abraham Idjirani told reporters the sultanate should receive as royalties 50 per cent of proceeds from Sabah's economic growth.
But Kiram also said his followers wanted to remain in Sabah even if a financial deal was struck.
"(They want to) peacefully settle in Sabah, which is our homeland," Kiram said.
Malaysian authorities have sought to ensure tensions do not escalate at the site of the stand-off, surrounding the gunmen but keeping their distance.
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