House seeks DFA briefing over the status of Sabah claim

Lanao del Norte Rep. Mohamad Khalid Dimaporo has filed a resolution asking the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) to brief Congress on the status of the Philippine claim over Sabah for the benefit of Filipinos living in Sabah.

“For the welfare of Filipino citizens residing in Sabah, it is the role of Congress to ensure that services will be available to them without prejudice on the territorial dispute with Malaysia,” Dimaporo said.

The Philippine Sabah claim stemmed from the ownership of Sabah by the Sultanate of Sulu, with the government of the Philippines as the successor state.

“The Supreme Court, on its decision dated July 16, 2011 has retained the Philippine claim to Sabah and that it can be pursued in the future,” Dimaporo noted.

The government maintains its stand that Sabah belongs to the Philippines as declared by Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. during a budget briefing on Sept. 4 before the House Committee on Appropriations.

“The Philippine government, thru the Department of Foreign Affairs, is steadfast on its stand that Sabah is part of the territory of the Republic of the Philippines,” Dimaporo said.

“The DFA refuses to create a consular office in Kota Kinabalu, the capital of Sabah, as it is against the Philippine government’s stand on the Sabah claim,” he said.

“We shall never have an Embassy in Sabah. To even think of it is an act of treason,” Locsin told the House Committee on Appropriations.

“I appreciate the answers of the good secretary. When we were discussing the Organic Law, I am trying to push that Sabah is one of the parts of the Bangsamoro territory to claim that Sabah is part of the Philippines and not part of Malaysia. It is nice to know the DFA is pushing through with the national government’s stand that Sabah belongs to the Republic of the Philippines,” Dimaporo said.

Locsin noted that the Sabah claim was initiated during the administration of the late President Diosdado Macapagal in 1961.

“Sabah claim was pushed by Macapagal and my father (Teodoro Locsin Sr.). Although my father did not like President Marcos, he supported him in his re-election because Marcos was planning to take back Sabah and made my father a party to that plan,” he said.

“Our plan now is to keep things as they are. As to West Philippine Sea, we are careful not to make any act that can be interpreted as an abandonment of our Sabah claim whether we can go further than that, I probably would not, if I knew than I don’t, I probably would not be allowed to say because that would be a matter of national security,” Locsin said.