Sabah dispute’s bottom line

We call Muslim Filipinos our brothers during elections. There comes a time when we are tested to mean what we say. Now is such a time.

Some 250 of our Muslim brothers are risking their lives to claim what rightfully belongs to them—Sabah. They have settled at Lahad Datu there. The least that our government can do for them is to lead in resolving the Sabah claim and to actively help represent them before the United Nations or through whatever diplomatic means. Before the Malaysian military move against them.

Time is running short. Bloodshed may be imminent. Malaysian military has quarantined the area, banning entry and exit. Through a naval blockade, it has stopped the delivery of food from their relatives in Sulu. Malaysia is intent on expelling our 250 Muslim Filipinos, either by bloodshed or by starvation.

If our past and present presidents have pleaded to save from execution our citizens who were sentenced to death in other countries, why not plead for the lives of hundreds of our Muslim brothers who are only asking that their claim to Sabah be heard and decided by the United Nations?

The historic and documentary evidence of the ownership of the Sultanate of Sulu over Sabah is overwhelming. This explains why Malaysia refuses to have this issue resolved by the International Court of Justice or by any other impartial international agency.

In the year 1704, the Sultan of Brunei asked for support and received help from the Sultan of Sulu to quell a rebellion in Brunei. Out of gratitude, the Sultan of Brunei gave the northern part of Borneo to the Sultan of Sulu.

In 1878 or 174 years later, Baron Von de Overbeck leased North Borneo from the Sultan of Sulu for 5,300 Mexican pieces of gold a year. Overbeck created the British North Borneo Co., which company was chartered by Great Britain.

In 1936, the British North Borneo Co. stopped the lease payments, after Sultan Jamalul Kiram II, the 32nd Sultan of Sulu, died. A Sessions Court in North Borneo ordered the resumption of payment by the company to the sultanate.

In 1963, North Borneo was renamed Sabah. Over the vigorous objection of the Philippine government, Sabah was included as part of the Federation of Malaysia.

In 1963, the Federation of Malaysia was created. Malaysia converted the stipulated rental payment into Malaysian ringgit (now the equivalent of a mere P77,000) which is not the legal equivalent of 5,300 pieces of Mexican gold.

The lease agreement used the word “padjak.” This word became the subject of dispute. After 85 years of paying rent to the Sultan of Sulu since 1878, Malaysia in 1963 conveniently misinterpreted the word  padjak  to mean cession or sale.

The sultanate insists padjak means rent. If this is a sale, why is it that the British North Borneo Co., and now the Federation of Malaysia, continues paying the Sultan of Sulu to this day. A sale needs a specific price. A continuous indefinite yearly payment of P77,000 cannot be a definite sale by any legal definition. It can only mean rent.

—LEONARD DE VERA

Equal Justice For All (E-Just)

deveralaw@gmail.com