President Benigno Aquino III should be more aggressive in pursuing Sabah, netizens said, as they backed the country's claim on the disputed territory.
More than two out of three (67 percent) of the 11,789 respondents in a Yahoo! poll so far think Sabah belongs to the Philippines.
On the other hand, only 7 percent of Yahoo! poll respondents chose the answer "Sabah belongs to Malaysia."
Peaceful negotiations, meanwhile, is the next step 25 percent of respondents think the government should start looking into.
The survey has been posted on Yahoo! Philippines' front page since Monday when fighting erupted between Malaysian forces and the Sulu sultan's men.
The bloody altercation is the violent escalation of a standoff since Feb. 9 over Sultan Jamalul Kiram III's ancestral claim on the territory.
Malaysia-trained fighters of the Moro National Liberation Front have also reportedly joined the Sulu Sultanate's men Tuesday.
Malaysian authorities have launched an all-out offensive Tuesday to clear out the Filipino group holed out in Sabah.
A total victory declared by Malaysia, however, has been downplayed by supporters of the Sulu Sultanate, even as reports floated the possibility that armed Filipino men had survived and escaped.
The President, meanwhile, stood pat on his calls for the Filipino group to lay down their arms and surrender without condition to Malaysian authorities.
His stand has since drawn mixed reactions from several groups and individuals, including the Communist Party of the Philippines.
The government "refused to act upon the clamor for a resolute effort to pursue the Philippine territorial claim to Sabah," CPP said Tuesday.
The group further accused Aquino of fanning the anger of the Sulu sultan's followers and "abandoning" Filipinos in Sabah.