The crisis in Sabah, which has remained unresolved one month after it erupted, could derail the peace process in the southern Philippines after the government of President Benigno Aquino III has condemned the reported abuses suffered by Filipinos at the hands of Malaysian police.

Aside from the condemnation of the reported abuses against Filipinos in Sabah, the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), the original Muslim rebel group in Mindanao, has also threatened to resume fighting in Mindanao.

Nur Misuari, the MNLF founder and erstwhile chairman, has been tagged by officials of the Aquino government as among the members of a conspiracy involved in providing support to Sulu Sultan Jamalul Kiram III and his followers who occupied Lahad Datu town in Sabah since Feb. 9.

The MNLF said that the government's mishandling of the Sabah standoff could revive moves by its members to seek an independent state in Mindanao.

The MNLF has signed a peace agreement with the government of then President Fidel Ramos in l996 but some elements of the MNLF are still armed and they maintained camps in Sulu and Basilan.

Malaysia has been brokering the peace process between the Aquino government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), the rebel group in Mindanao that has succeeded the MNLF.

The two sides signed a framework agreement in Malacanang, the seat of the Philippine government, in October last year. Since then, negotiators from the two sides have been meeting regularly in Kuala Lumpur to flesh out the details of a final peace agreement.

The militant Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (New Nationalist Alliance) also called on Aquino government to vigorously protest the brutal crackdown on Filipinos in Sabah "or its silence might be understood as a tacit approval of the Malaysian government's mail-fisted response to the intrusion."

"Aquino himself should speak out against these atrocities," said Renato Reyes, the alliance secretary general.

It was not immediately known whether the government's " displeasure" over the reported abuses by Malaysian police authorities against Filipinos in Sabah could prompt Kuala Lumpur to suspend its role as mediator in the armed conflict in the Southern Philippines.

But speaking on a state-run radio on Sunday, Deputy Presidential Spokesperson Abigail Valte made it very clear that abuses against Filipinos in Sabah were "unacceptable" to the government.

Valte said Philippine diplomats would talk to the Malaysians about the reported abuses.

According to Valte, during his talks with Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak on March 2, Aquino was assured by the Malaysian leader that the rights of the 800,000 Filipinos in Malaysia would be protected.

But accounts given by some Filipino residents in Sabah who were forced to return to Tawi-Tawi and Sulu said that their human rights were violated and some were even shot summarily.

Seventy-nine people, including Tausug and Orang Suluk (people who originated from Sulu), were rounded up over the weekend in police sweeps of villages to flush out supporters of Sultan Kiram.

On Sunday, 33 more, including four women, were arrested on suspicion of abetting the intruders by providing them with security information.

In one account, a refugee, Amira Taradji, spoke of how Malaysian police rounded up Filipino men, made them run as fast as they could and shot them.

One of the men killed in Sandakan, a town far from Lahad Datu, where the standoff between the followers of Sultan Kiram and the Malaysian forces has continued, was Taradji's brother Jumadil.

Even Filipinos with immigration papers were being rounded up and thrown into jails, Taradji said.

Since the armed clashes started on March 1, 61 people have been killed, including 53 followers of Sultan Kiram and eight Malaysian policemen.

The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) has also called on Malaysia to clarify the reported abuses.

"If this is true, we will tell them that this should not happen because the safety of all Filipinos in .. Sabah is important," DFA Spokesman Raul Hernandez said in a radio interview.

Hernandez has lamented that up to Monday, Malaysian authorities have ignored their request to allow Filipino diplomats to visit the detained Filipinos to find out whether they are treated humanely.

He said Malaysia had not also responded to a Philippine request for updated information about Filipino casualties in the fighting between Malaysian security forces and Kiram followers led by the sultan's brother Agbimuddin.

The Philippines has also asked Malaysia to be given access to 10 sultanate followers who were captured during a police raid on Agbimuddin's group in Tanduao village in Lahad Datu town on March 1, but the Malaysians have not responded, Hernandez said.

According to Hernandez, Malaysia has likewise not responded to the Philippines' request for permission for a mercy ship to go to Sabah to pick up Filipinos who want to return home.