OSG updating Palace on Sulu claim

Due to the reversal of the Sulu Sultanate’s $14.92-billion award by a French arbitration court over its Sabah claim, the Office of the Solicitor General is updating its report to Malacañang.

“We submitted our report to PBBM (President Bongbong Marcos) last year,” Solicitor General Menardo Guevarra said. “We are continually updating it because of significant developments since the award in favor of the heirs of the sultan of Sulu came out.”

“Malaysia is turning the tables against the heirs,” said Guevarra, referring to the French court having handed Malaysia a “decisive victory” in the long-running dispute.

The Paris Court of Appeal’s judgment in June 2023 found that the arbitral tribunal that heard the petition filed by the Filipino heirs of the last sultan of Sulu did not have jurisdiction over the case.

The judgment raised the possibility that the Paris Court of Appeal will also annul the $14.9-billion award handed down earlier.

The Filipino claimants had previously tried to seize three properties owned by the Malaysian government in Paris, as well as assets of the Malaysian state oil firm Petronas in Luxembourg and the Netherlands.

The Malaysian side described the latest ruling as “final and binding” and said it was “a decisive victory in Malaysia’s ongoing pursuit of legal remedies, which Malaysia is confident will result in a comprehensive defeat for the claimants and their funders.”

The claimants said they would consider their options before the French Supreme Court.

Earlier, Guevarra said the arbitral award in favor of the heirs of the Sultanate of Sulu had been completed and assured that the team he formed to look into the international arbitral award in favor of the heirs of the Sultanate of Sulu was deeply studying the matter.

The team is studying legal and constitutional implications of the $14.92 billion award of a French arbitration court to the descendants of the last Sulu sultan, Guevarra said.

Lawyers of the Sulu royal family have already served notice to seize $2 billion worth of assets of Malaysia abroad, including those of state-owned oil company Petronas, in line with the award.