I am amused by the flag-waving and saber-rattling of some of our countrymen obsessed with that resource-rich land south of Sulu known as Sabah. While I do not pass judgment on the veracity of historical documents that may tip the scale of evidence of ownership and even sovereignty in our favor, I question the wisdom of a claim that has no chance of winning in the most supreme court of all: the sentiments and views of the inhabitants of Sabah.
Has anyone imagined that if Agbimuddin Kiram succeeded in Sabah, Bangsamoro would have an additional territory of 30,000 square miles, the Sultan of Sulu (or the Philippines) would reap about $95 billion in annual revenue, and the Philippine government would get substantial taxes? After all, legally, Malaysia does not have de jure sovereignty over Sabah.
The work of the Transition Commission for the Bangsamoro region got under way the other day; it is no exaggeration to say that the undertaking is burdened with the high expectations of millions of Filipinos. By the terms of the 2012 Framework Agreement, signed with much fanfare and even more emotion in Malacañang last October, [...]
After the crackdown, the exodus. A government official estimates that as many as 100,000 Filipinos in Sabah may return to Mindanao by the end of May—a massive remigration that needs to be prepared for. Will the government be ready? And is the Sultanate of Sulu, whose incursion into Sabah precipitated the crisis, in a position [...]
The Sultanate of Maguindanao and the kingdom of Buayan in upper Cotabato played key roles in ending a civil war in Brunei in the 17th century that resulted in the Sulu sultanate being rewarded a huge swath of territory called Sabah.
We can only hope that the gains achieved in the Mindanao peace process will not be wasted by the revival of the Sultanate of Sulu’s claim to Sabah.
The Philippine government, says Abraham Idjirani, should rail against Malaysia’s act of haling eight of his boss Jamalul Kiram’s followers to court for terrorism and muster all its resources to come to their aid. At least that’s what he said earlier. His boss would later disown the accused—not unlike Simon before he became Peter—saying they were not his men. In fact, they were not Filipinos but Malaysians.
Within a span of 45 years, the Philippine claim to Sabah has spawned two tragedies: first, the slaughter of the followers of the sultan of Sulu who landed in Sabah on Feb. 9 at the hands of Malaysian security forces; second, the alleged murder of 27 Muslim recruits in the so-called Jabidah project, said to be a top-secret plan of then President Ferdinand Marcos to invade Sabah and reclaim it as part of Philippine territory.
Why did the United Kingdom so easily cede its sovereignty over Sabah to Malaysia in 1963 despite knowing that its rights over the territory arose merely from the lease granted by the Sultan of Sulu to the British North Borneo Company? Why did it ignore the Philippine claim and voluntarily relinquish its sovereignty over Sabah to the new emerging state of Malaysia?
Under a treaty entered into with the sultans of Sulu and Maguindanao in 1640, the Spaniards recognized the independence of the two sultanates. Thus, the Sulu sultan later became the sovereign ruler of Sabah.
The Pulse Asia survey results suggest that President Aquino continues to enjoy high approval ratings (68 percent )and trust ratings (70 percent) despite a storm of criticism for his handling of the conflict between the Philippines and Malaysia over the landing of the Sultan of Sulu’s armed followers in Sabah on Feb. 9. It must [...]
