The historical facts about Sabah Filipinos must know

(Part I)

The media and Malacañang have generally focused on the negative aspects of the Sabah story. For more than two weeks, our local dailies and television have been reporting President Benigno “P-Noy” Aquino III’s frustration on the refusal of Sulu Sultan Jamalul Kiram III to make his people, who have settled in Lahad Datu, their real “homeland,” to return back to Sulu. People are also wondering why President Aquino, the highest authority in the Philippines, does not help negotiate a fair settlement between the Sulu Sultanate and the Malaysian government, whose regular payment of a paltry sum to rent Sabah signifies that true ownership belongs to the Sulu Sultanate. Instead, he has treated Sulu Sultan Jamalul Kiram III like a child, “Do as I tell you. Come home or else...” P-Noy was only 2 years old when President Diosdado Macapagal filed the Philippine claim to North Borneo on June 22, 1962.

The better road to peace . . .

Western scientists have confirmed that in ancient times North Borneo and the Philippines, connected by land-bridge have been considered as one country.

Philippine STAR columnist Amy Pamintuan quotes the website of the “Royal Hashemite Sultan of Sulu (and North Borneo / Sabah),” Malaysia should either increase its rent for Sabah or return the land to the sultanate.

“They’re not talking peanuts. The amount listed is $1,500 or P77,445.36 as current annual rental for 73,711 square kilometers of land rich in natural resources. Considering that Sabah contributes $30 billion annually to Malaysian GDP, according to the sultanate, the rent should be 10 to 12 percent of the amount, or $3-3.6 billion a year.

“Another proposed option is a joint administration of Sabah by the sultanate and Kuala Lumpur, with all earnings to be split: 50 percent will go to Sulu for development projects such as roads, hospitals, schools and public safety facilities, while Sabah and Kuala Lumpur will get 25 percent each.”

Mr. President, isn’t this a worthy basis of negotiation that would uplift the status of our Muslim brothers and triple the development of Mindanao? Sir, lets choose the BETTER ROAD TO PEACE, than mere talk and signing of treaties?

Sen. Salonga recounts the background of the Sabah claim

The following year — 1963 — after President Macapagal filed the Sabah claim, Sen. Lorenzo Sumulong’s privilege speech denounced the Philippine claim but Sen. Jovito Salonga delivered a point by point rebuttal to Sumulong’s speech.

1704 — The Philippines and what is known today as Borneo used to constitute a single historical, cultural, economic unit. Authoritative Western scientists have traced the land bridges that connected these two places. The inhabitants of the Philippines and Borneo come from the same racial stock, they have the same color, or used to have similar customs and traditions.

North Borneo, formerly known as Sabah, was originally ruled by the Sultan of Brunei in 1704. In gratitude for help extended to him by the Sultan of Sulu in suppressing a revolt, the Sultan of Brunei ceded North Borneo to the Sulu Sultan.

HERE, OUR CLAIM BEGINS. Over the years, the various European countries, including Britain, Spain and the Netherlands acknowledged the Sultan of Sulu as the sovereign ruler of North Borneo. They entered into various treaty arrangements with him.

Baron de Overbeck and the natural boundaries of Sabah territory

“In 1878, a keen Austrian adventurer, by the name of Baron de Overbeck, having known that the Sultan of Sulu was facing a life-and-death struggle with the Spanish forces in the Sulu Archipelago, went to Sulu, took advantage of the situation and persuaded the Sultan of Sulu to lease to him, in consideration of a yearly rental of Malayan $5,000 (roughly equivalent to a meager US$1,600), the territory now in question. The contract of lease — and I call it so on the basis of British documents and records that cannot be disputed here or abroad — contains a technical description of the territory in terms of natural boundaries, thus:

“...all the territories and lands being tributary to us on the mainland of the island of Borneo commencing from Pandassan River on the northwest coast and extending along the whole east coast as far as the Sibuco River in the South and comprising among others the States of Peitan, Sugut, Bangaya, Labuk, Sandakan, Kinabatangan, Muniang and all the other territories and states to the southward therefore bordering on Darvel Bay and as far as the Sibuco River with all the islands within 3 marine leagues of the coast.” ( International Law stipulates that territories may be indicated by natural boundaries.)

The British North Borneo Company and 1946 Philippine independence

Overbeck later sold out all his rights under the contract to Alfred Dent, an English merchant, who established a provisional association and later a company, known as the British North Borneo Co., which assumed all the rights and obligations under the 1878 contract. This company was awarded a Royal Charter in 1881. A protest against the grant of the charter was lodged by the Spanish and the Dutch Governments and in reply, the British Government clarified its position and stated in unmistakable language that “sovereignty remains with the Sultan of Sulu” and that the company was merely an administering authority.

In 1946, the British North Borneo Co. transferred all its rights and obligations to the British Crown. The Crown, on July 10, 1946, just six days after Philippine independence, asserted full sovereign rights over North Borneo. Shortly thereafter former American Governor General Harrison, then Special Adviser to the Philippine Government on Foreign Affairs denounced the cession order as a unilateral act of violation of legal rights. In 1950, Congressman Macapagal, along with Congressmen Arsenio Lacson and Arturo Tolentino, sponsored a resolution urging the formal institution of the claim to North Borneo. Prolonged studies were in the meanwhile undertaken, and in 1962 the House of Representatives, in rare unanimity, passed a resolution urging the President of the Philippines to recover North Borneo consistent with international law and procedure. Acting on this unanimous resolution and having acquired all the rights and interests of the Sultanate of Sulu, the Republic of the Philippines, through the President, filed the claim to North Borneo.

Other basis of the proposition

On the basis of authoritative British and Spanish documents, The British North Borneo Co. being a private trading concern to whom Dent transferred his rights, did not and could not acquire dominion and sovereignty over North Borneo; as those indicated in the basic contract, that of a lessee and a mere delegate. In accordance with established precedents in International Law, the assertion of sovereign rights by the British Crown in 1946 is in complete disregard of the contract of 1878. Our commitments under the United Nations Charter, the Bandung Conference Declaration and the 1960 decolonization resolution of the General Assembly are matters of record and there is no quarrel about them. The British Crown never considered North Borneo as British territory, nor the North Borneans as British subjects.

In relation to Chapter 14 of the United Nations Charter, “the heirs of the Sultan” could not possibly litigate before the International Court of Justice for the simple reason that they have no international legal personality. They do not constitute a State, as that term is understood in law. Chapter 2, Article 34, paragraph 1 of the Statute clearly provides: “Only States may be parties in cases before the Court.”

What has the Philippines to gain?

In 1963, Malaysia was still unsure of its hold on the sentiment of the people of Sabah before the Federation of Malaysia was made official signifying her independence as a colony of Britain. Kuala Lumpur continued to court the population with economic programs designated to secure their allegiance, US$7.3 million (Ringgit 22M) for 12 states to finance land settlement schemes in the East Tawau to Sandakan.

The distribution of free land, equally divided from ten to fifteen hectares, with housing and free seedling per family will enable each settler to earn P750 monthly from oil palm. These 400 families resettled near Sandakan to develop 7,000 acres of oil palm to become members of the planned Federation of Malaysia.

The successful carry through of the Philippine claim laid then on the shoulder of then President Ferdinand Marcos, to secure what was initiated by his predecessor President Diosdado Macapagal. Unless Marcos succeeds, the Philippines would have written off a territory the size of Ireland, twice that of Switzerland, measuring 29,388 sq. miles, more than half of the Malay Peninsula’s 50,950 sq. miles. Sabah was then the most scarcely populated section with only 5.48 percent against the 85.65 percent population of Malaysia.

 (Part II - Max V. Soliven’s on-the-spot news coverage of Sabah and Corregidor dispute)

(For feedbacks and comments email to [email protected])