Nation’s victory

In winning the arbitration case in France, the lineage of the Sulu Sultan Jamal al Alam did the nation a favor by providing legal recognition to support the effort to reclaim Sabah as part of the Philippine territory.

International law expert and spokesperson of former President Rodrigo Duterte Harry Roque said a 1962 compact during the term of President Diosdado Macapagal made the Sabah claim an issue of sovereignty.

“The Sultanate of Sulu had assigned all the rights over Sabah to the Philippine government,” Roque explained.

As a consequence, Roque explained that the Sabah claim has become a “Philippine issue and not just a private matter for the Sultanate of Sulu.”

Last March, an arbitral court in France issued a $14.9 billion award to the Sulu Sultanate for what constituted as a breach of contract after the Malaysian government stopped payment of the yearly lease in the aftermath of the 2013 Lahad Datu incursion involving followers of the Sultanate.

Roque said the March 2022 arbitral ruling is in consonance with the 1939 British High Court’s Macaskie Decision, which recognized the Sultanate descendants as rightful owners of Sabah.

“The arbitral decision recognized the 1878 contract entered into by Sultan Jamalul Ahlam with the representatives of the British North Borneo Company as a grant of a lease and not of sale,” according to Roque.

An 1878 agreement signed by the Sulu Sultan, Baron de Overbeck and the British North Borneo Company’s Alfred Dent leased Sabah for 5,000 Malayan dollar.

As a result of the ruling, Roque said the “Sultanate should be paid their proprietary rights. They leased the land and the lease payments were withheld in 2013, and they should be compensated for all the property rights that Malaysia benefited from.”

Nonetheless, Roque pointed out that it is a sovereignty issue because of the assignment made during the time of President Macapagal.

“In very clear words, the Sultanate of Sulu assigned all the rights to Sabah to the Philippine government.”

Roque said it is now incumbent for the government of President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. to “decide once and for all if the country’s position on Sabah remains a territorial claim of the Philippine republic or a proprietary claim of the Sultanate of Sulu descendants.”

If the decision is to support the proprietary rights of the Sultanate, “we should support the arbitration.”

Another option is “to set aside the issue of proprietary rights and say that this is without prejudice to the issue of sovereignty.”

The arbitral decision bolstered the claim that Sabah is part of the Philippines since it indicated that because “there is a breach on the part of Malaysia, the (1878) contract had ceased to have legal validity and the parties must be restored to status quo ante.”

This means that Sabah must be transferred back to the ownership of Sulu and the Philippines, according to Roque.

“The Philippines has never given up its claim over the territory,” he stressed. The arbitral decision presents both the Philippines and Malaysia the opportunity to settle the century-old Sabah question and give justice where it is due.

“Roque said the March 2022 arbitral ruling is in consonance with the 1939 British High Court’s Macaskie Decision, which recognized the Sultanate descendants as the rightful owners of Sabah.

“The arbitral decision presents both the Philippines and Malaysia the opportunity to settle the century -old Sabah question and give justice where it is due.