Sovereign obligation

“Under Prime Minister Najib Razak, Malaysia cut off the yearly 5,000 Malaysian ringgit compensation after the tragic Lahad Datu incursion.

Matters that confront the implementation of the French arbitral court’s award of $14.9 billion to the Sulu Sultanate have become international after the seizing of the $2 billion assets of Malaysian energy giant Petronas in Azerbaijan.

The British lawyers of the Sultanate are plotting their next move to implement the award, and other Malaysian assets in different parts of the world are being lined up for attachment.

“What is good about arbitration is that it does not need to go through the courts of every nation to be implemented,” former Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said.

He cited a treaty called the New York Convention in which 168 countries are signatories, and in which they stated arbitral awards will be treated similarly as the ruling of a local court.

The issue becomes complicated, nonetheless, since the rights over Sabah were assigned to the Philippines.

Roque referred to a 1962 deed of assignment in which Sultan Mohammad Esmail Kiram “ceded and transferred” the “title of sovereignty and dominion” over the territory of North Borneo or Sabah.

In response, President Diosdado Macapagal indicated in a memorandum of acceptance that the cession or transfer of sovereignty was accepted through then Vice President Emmanuel Pelaez.

“The cession of the Sulu Sultanate to the Philippine government is unqualified. It is not subject to any condition so it can’t be revoked. The agreement is absolute,” according to Roque. A member of the Sultanate said a resolution of the Royal family revoked the 1962 assignment of rights.

Roque said the French court ruling ended the debates over whether the word “pajak” used in the 1878 contract among Sulu Sultan Jamal Al Alam, British government representative Baron de Overbeck and the British North Borneo Company’s Alfred Dent as it was considered in the ruling as a lease and not a cession payment as Malaysia insisted.

“That was the reason that the court considered Malaysia in default because it arbitrarily ceased payments in 2013,” according to Roque.

Under Prime Minister Najib Razak, Malaysia cut off the yearly 5,000 Malaysian ringgit compensation after the tragic Lahad Datu incursion in which a poorlyarmed Royal Sulu Army tried to evict Malaysia from the resources-rich territory.

The amount given to the Sultanate reached $14.9 billion since it included all unearned income that the royal house should have benefited from had it taken possession of Sabah.

“So this is not just a victory of the Sultanate but a triumph of the entire nation since the right over Sabah was ceded to the Philippine government,” Roque asserted.

Whatever the gains from the ruling should be discussed by the Sultanate and the government, a negotiation which, Roque said, would necessarily need government representation.

Regardless of the outcome of the discussion on the award, the government should make its presence felt since the matter of territory is involved.

It is not possible for the government to look the other way as part of its dominion and the welfare of Filipino citizens is put at stake in the now international issue.

“Roque cited a treaty called the New York Convention in which 168 countries are signatories, and in which they stated arbitral awards will be treated similarly as the ruling of a local court.