ESSCom succeeds in keeping ESSZone safe and secure: Musa

KOTA KINABALU: The preparedness and measures taken by the Eastern Sabah Security Command (ESSCom) have succeeded in keeping the East Sabah Security Zone (ESSZone) safe and secure, said Sabah Chief Minister Tan Sri Musa Aman.
Replying to questions from Datuk Abd Muis Picho (BN-Sebatik), Datuk Samsudin Yahya (BN-Sekong) and Datuk Limus Jury (BN-Kuala Penyu), he said the effectiveness of the security measures was evident when there was no abduction cases reported since the beginning of 2017.
He said among measures taken by ESSCom, comprising the Malaysian Armed Forces, the Royal Malaysia Police and the Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency, were carrying out intensive and coordinated patrolling with the Philippines security forces under the Trilateral Cooperative Arrangement (TCA) covering the sea and air.
Musa said monitoring and inspections in the areas suspected of being used by illegal immigrants at ESSZone had also been carried out by the implementation of integrated operations and enhancing inspection at airports and seaports in ESSZone.
“In addition, ESSCom will implement sea check-point (SCP) that aims at balancing and enhancing overall security controls and ensure the smooth running of socio-economic trade activities by complying with the regulations and laws,” he said at the Sabah State Legislative Assembly sitting here today.
Musa said that the main focus of the SCP was to restrict the smuggling of firearms and other cross-border criminal elements that threatened security in Sabah, especially in the ESSZone while the designated route in the marine area was currently in the classification stage to be submitted to the Attorney General’s Chamber for the purpose of gazetting.
“In addition, ESSCom is also planning to implement road check-point (RCP) on the mainland, aims at preventing the entry of any element that threatens the security in ESSZone, apart from detecting and capturing illegal immigrants suspected to be involved with militant elements,” he said.
Musa said another security measure taken by the government was the trilateral maritime patrolling conducted by Royal Malaysian Navy vessel KD Sri Gaya and the Philippines Navy vessel BRP CEBU while trilateral air patrolling under TCA were also held between Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines security forces.
Meanwhile, he added the curfew that was enforced at ESSZone since July 19, 2014, had managed to control the influence of undesirable outside elements, thereby enhancing the security control on the east coast of Sabah. — Bernama