Amid mounting calls to take a stand on Sabah, PNoy forms team to study PH claim

From InterAksyon (Feb 21): Amid mounting calls to take a stand on Sabah, PNoy forms team to study PH claim

Amid mounting calls for the Philippine government to take a stand on the Sabah issue, President Benigno Aquino III announced on Thursday that he had formed a team of experts who would study the country's claim to the territory.

Aqino, in an interview in Iloilo aired over state-run Radyo ng Bayan, said he had found some of the source documents on the Sabah claim to be confusing.

He said among the source documents that had been compiled by the government are the 1878 agreement between the Kiram family and the British North Borneo Company as well the numerous amendments to the accord.

Aquino said the government had also opened its communication lines with the family and supporters of Sulu Sultan Jamalul Kiram III.

"We want to ensure a peaceful resolution in Sabah," Aquino said.

Department of Justice (DOJ) Secretary Leila de Lima, who is part of the team on Thursday said, "We are looking at the validity or legal basis of the claim as well as an assessment of its strength or weakness (of the claim of Sultan Jamalul Kiram) as the case may be.”

De Lima said they had started looking at the available materials and literature, including previous studies.

The DOJ chief said that while there was no deadline given to them, "we know that this is a priority assignment."

"I will try to finish in a few days," De Lima said.

Problem with GRP-MILF peace pact

Since February 9, Kiram’s followers, about 400 people including 20 gunmen, have been holed up in Tanduao village in Sabah's remote coastal town of Lahad Datu.
Kiram said he was prompted to send his people to Sabah after the Philippine government left them out of the framework agreement signed in October, which only catered to the interest of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).

It was Malaysia, which took over Sabah in 1963, that brokered the peace talks between the Philippine government and the MILF.

While the MILF respects the Kiram family's claim to Sabah and won't stand in the way of that claim, it "will not revive the claim," according to Khaled Musa, deputy chairperson of the MILF's committee on information.
 
Kiram, who ran but lost in the 2007 senatorial elections, is the acknowledged leader of the Sultanate of Sulu and North Borneo. The sultanate based in Southern Philippines once controlled North Borneo, which is now known as Sabah.
 
The sultanate acquired Sabah as a prize for helping the Sultan of Brunei against his enemies.

According to the sultante, it did not relinquish its sovereignty over Sabah and only leased the territory to the Briitish North Borneo Company starting in 1878.

Pajak, the keyword in the 1878 pact

The keyword in the 1878 agreement between the Kiram family and Gustavo von de Overbeck of the Briitish North Borneo Company was pajak. The Kirams maintain that pajak means lease. But Malaysian authorities define pajak as sale.

The lease continued until the independence and formation of the Malaysian federation in 1963, which included Sabah.

Because of Sabah's inclusion, the Philippine government during the presidency of Diosdado Macapagal, broke diplomatic relations with Malaysia.

It was during Macapagal's term when then reigning Sultan of Sulu, Muhammad Esmail E. Kiram I, ceded to the Philippine government the full sovereignty, title, and dominion of Sabah to the Republic of the Philippines. This gave the Philippine government the full authority to pursue its claim to Sabah in international courts.
But starting in 1989, succeeding administrations put the Sabah claim on the back burner and instead decided to pursue economic and security relations with Malaysia.

P70,000 for 7 million hectares

Up to now, the heirs of the sultanate receive rental money for Sabah from the Malaysian government.

Sabah’s total land area is 7.36 million hectares or almost one-fourth of the Philippines, which is 30 million hectares.

Annually, the Malaysian government pays the heirs of the Sultanate of Sulu, 5,300 Malaysian ringgit currently equivalent to P70,000. If pajak is defined as rent, it means that Malaysia’s annual rent of Sabah is only .009 centavos per hectare.

According to Kiram, the rent they receive only proves that the sultante owns Sabah.
"Why should we leave our own home? In fact, they are paying rent (to us)," Kiram earlier told reporters in Manila.

"Our followers will stay in Lahad Datu. Nobody will be sent to the Philippines. Sabah is our home," he added.

Take a stand on Sabah claim

Lawmakers and legal experts are urging the Aquino admnistration to take a stand on Sabah.

Citizens Battle Against Corruption (CIBAC) partylist Representative Sherwin Tugna on Tuesday said addressing the issue early on would ensure a peaceful solution and avert misunderstanding and violence.

“Let’s not evade this issue anymore. Either make a stand on it or abandon the claim entirely. One way or another it would always find its way in the headlines. This would continue until it is properly and eruditely addressed by both parties,” Tugna said.
On Wednesday, reelectionist Senator Antonio Trillanes IV also urged the Aquino administration to make known its policy on the country's claim to Sabah.

Meanwhile, lawyer Harry Roque, director of the University of the Philippines Law Center's Institute of International Legal Studies, said, "It is incumbent on President Aquino's administration to espouse the claim of the sultanate."

"Certainly, Articel 1 of the 1987 Constitution on the National Territory mandates this," added Roque.

http://www.interaksyon.com/article/55569/amid-mounting-calls-to-take-a-stand-on-sabah-pnoy-forms-team-to-study-ph-claim