A UST historian has backed the Sultanate of Sulu’s claim to the resource-rich Sabah territory, in the aftermath of the Lahad Datu standoff between sultanate and Malaysian forces that killed 68 people from both sides as well as civilians.
Department of History Chairman Augusto De Viana said Sulu Sultan Jamalul Kiram III had every right to press his claim to Sabah, the northern part of Borneo Island that is a federated state of Malaysia.
“He is only fighting for his proprietary rights,” he said. “The fact that Malaysia is paying Kiram every year should be enough proof that his claim is valid.”
Among the sultans of Southeast Asia, Kiram is probably the poorest, De Viana said. “Kiram should at least receive a respectable pension for Sabah,” he said.
Cession fee
Malaysia pays nearly P70,000 in fees to the Sultanate of Sulu every year under a disputed lease inherited by Malaysians, following independence from British colonizers. The Sulu sultan’s claim hinges on the assertion that Malaysia is only renting the land.
But the Malaysian government calls the yearly payment a “cession fee,” not a rental. Cession, in international law, refers to the transfer of property to another entity under a treaty.
A spokesman for the sultanate, Abraham Idjirani, said in a press conference last March 8 that the Malay term “padjak” was used in the 1878 contract between the Sultanate of Sulu and the British North Borneo Company. The term, written in Arabic characters and is also used in the Tausug dialect, means lease, according to Bahasa Malay experts.
Idjirani said the yearly payment cannot be considered a cession fee because it is continuously being paid. “If it is cession money, why are they still paying the heirs up to now?” Idjirani asked.
De Viana said the term simply meant a lease and not the total transfer of ownership to the Malaysians.
Tension between the Philippines and Malaysia escalated following the attack by Kiram’s forces in Lahad Datu, Sabah last February. The Sulu sultan deployed around 300 men to Sabah to assert his ancestral claim to the eastern Malaysian territory, and to establish a settlement.
Kiram claimed the Philippine government’s indifference toward the issue prompted him to act on his own. But President Benigno Aquino III criticized the Sultan, saying a dialogue was more effective than force.
In 1658, Sabah went into the hands of the sultan of Sulu, as reward for helping the sultan of Brunei suppress a rebellion.
The dispute dates back to 1876. Sabah was put up for lease out of desperation to British Alfred Dent, De Viana said, adding that it served as a saving measure for the sultan of Sulu.
“When the Federation of Malaysia was created in 1963, the Sabahans allegedly lobbied to be part of Malaysia,” De Viana said.
Malaysian Foreign Minister Datuk Seri Anifah Aman has asserted that the United Nations recognizes Sabah as part of Malaysian territory.
Hands tied?
In 1947, then future president Diosdado Macapagal flew to London to oversee the turnover of the Turtle Islands in Tawi-Tawi to the Philippines from Great Britain, under the 1763 Treaty of Paris.
According to De Viana, Macapagal researched at the Library of London, where he discovered documents supporting the Philippine claim to Sabah. This pushed Macapagal to revive the country’s historic claim to the territory.
But President Ferdinand Marcos supposedly had a different plan—to invade Sabah under the top-secret plan called “Operation Merdeka.” Angered, the Malaysians started aiding the rebel group Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) of Nur Misuari.
The claim became inactive when Corazon Aquino became president, supposedly due to her friendly relationship with Malaysian premier Mahathir Mohamad. Mahathir is said to have supported the late senator Benigno Aquino, Jr., Corazon’s slain husband and father and namesake of the incumbent president.
Moreover, Malaysia brokered the Bangsamoro peace deal between the Philippine government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) last year. This was opposed by the MNLF, which raised speculation that it was behind Kiram’s actions. MNLF’s Misuari denied this, however.
Kiram is also complaining of his exclusion from peace talks with the MILF, pointing out that the government had ignored his representations. Kiram’s brother wrote to President Aquino before the latter took office in 2010, seeking to join the peace talks.
Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) Secretary Albert del Rosario admitted last March that the letter was misplaced in his office.
“On the issue of the missing letter written by Raja Muda Agbimuddin Kiram to the President days before the President took his oath in June 2010, that letter has been found with the DFA. The Secretary is taking full responsibility for the oversight,” said the DFA in a statement. Kristelle Ann A. Batchelor
