Sen. Robin asserts PHL rights over Sabah anew

AMID efforts to firmly assert its rights over Philippine territory in the West Philippine Sea, Senator Robin Padilla stressed the Philippine officialdom must do the same for Sabah.

Taking the floor at the Senate session Tuesday, Padilla reminded in his interpellation of the bill on the proposed Philippine Maritime Zones Act that Sabah has many natural resources that can be used by Filipinos,

especially those in Muslim Mindanao.

“We must fight for our rights in Sabah. We are talking not of small islands but of a large land mass with oil and minerals that we Filipinos have rights to. If we can assert our rights in the West Philippine Sea, so must we do the same but in a peaceful manner,” the senator stressed.

He noted the Philippines already has an existing law-republic Act 5446, signed in August 1968-that regards Sabah as a territory over which the Philippines has acquired “dominion and sovereignty.”

In his first privilege speech in 2022, Padilla pushed for the Philippines to assert its rights over Sabah.

Because of this, Padilla said he intends to propose an amendment on the definition of baselines under the Maritime Zones bill to include the Philippines’ position on Sabah, which was provided for under RA 5446.

Sen. Francis Tolentino, who sponsored the bill for the proposed Philippine Maritime Zones Act, agreed to include a line that the Philippines is not abandoning its claim to Sabah, so long as it is phrased properly.

“If we can phrase it properly, I will not object to the amendment, so long as it will strengthen not just the bill but our resolve that what is rightfully ours should be ours,” he said.

On interpellation by Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel III on Wednesday, however, the main author of the maritime zones bill, Sen. Francis Tolentino, explained that “the maritime zones law [being contemplated] refers only to waters, not land, not territories...so the settlement of the same [Sabah claim] would involve another regime.”

Tolentino said that if and when Sabah’s status is settled,“sabah itself will have its own baseline, its own territorial sea.”