Sulu Sultan Kiram II succumbs to kidney disease

At 76, Sultan Esmail Kiram II, reigning 34th sovereign of the Sultanate of Sulu and North Borneo (SSNB), succumbed to kidney disease in Zamboanga City last Saturday.

His turn as the leader of the Sultanate came on Oct. 26, 2013 when he succeeded his elder brother, the late Sultan Jamalul Kiram III.

Before that he also was “Bantilan” or acting sultan. He was a teacher and a religious leader and a unifier as well.

Abraham J. Idjirani, secretary general of the Moro Sultanate, confirmed the death saying Kiram had been receiving treatment on-and-off for his kidney illness.

“Before he expired, Sultan Esmail Kiram II asked his siblings to maintain the unity of the clan,” Idjirani said.

From Zamboanga City, his remains will be brought to Jolo, Sulu. He breathed his last just after Maghreb, the early evening prayer in Islam.

Kiram II will be buried near his late brother Jamalul, who died on October 20, 2013, in the Kiram clan’s ancestral graveyard in Maimbung, Sulu, he said.

Idjirani said their brother, Rajah Muda (Crown Prince) Phugdal, 75, will succeed to the Sultanate’s crown following “strict adherence to the law and order of succession.”

A younger brother of the late sultans, the then Rajah Muda Agbimuddin, passed away on January 13, 2015, after returning from Lahad Datu, Sabah.

It could be recalled that Agbimuddin along with more than 200 members of the Royal Security Force (RSF) of the Sultanate, sailed to Lahad Datu, Sabah, in February 2013 to stake the Sultanate’s historical and ancestral ownership over the territory that is rich in natural resources.

Idjirani recalled that Kiram, II became a teacher after passing an Elementary Teacher’s Course (ETC), seeing that Sulu did not have enough teachers.

He was a consistent honor student in high school, played basketball as well at the Sulu High School, he added.

During martial law the he joined the anti-martial law forces in the 1970s opposing the regime of President Ferdinand Marcos.

A twist of fate brought him to the defunct Ministry of Human Settlements as an employee at the agency headed then by First Lady Imelda Marcos.

The late President Corazon Aquino appointed Kiram II as a member of the Sulu Provincial Board.

One of his children, Datu Amirbahar Hussin, about 52, is still in detention in Sabah since he was arrested by Malaysian authorities in April 2013 as they charged him of being one of the leaders of the Sabah standoff led by his uncle Agbimuddin.