Predicament

Instead of attempting to peddle a conspiracy theory, President Aquino might consider opening a policy discussion on what to do with our dormant claim over Sabah.

This week, days after the landing of armed Tausogs was reported in the media, an obviously annoyed Aquino named four persons as being part of a conspiracy to undermine the peace deal with the MILF: Nur Misuari, now seeking leadership of the ARMM; Peping and Tingting Cojuangco, who seem to have extensive Sulu connections; and former national security adviser Norberto Gonzales, under whose Partido Demokratiko Sosyalista ng Pilipinas banner Sultan Kiram ran for the Senate in 2007.

The four, and nearly everybody else, could only express amazement at the claims Aquino was making.

When Rajah Mudah Agbinuddin Kiram, brother of the Sultan of Sulu and North Borneo, landed a small force from the “Sultanate Army” in Lahad Datu town in Sabah, the intention was not to upset the peace process the Manila government is trying to advance with the MILF. The intention was to reignite the Sultanate’s claim over what was once called North Borneo.

The insertion of a small armed force into what is officially foreign territory took everyone by surprise. The Malaysians did not quite know what to do with them. For many days now, Malaysian security forces have surrounded the armed group but have made no potentially provocative effort to expel or disarm them. The latest reports indicate Malaysian security forces have set up a food blockade to force the Filipinos to yield.

Malacanang Palace did not know what to do either. For days, the constantly bewildered deputy Palace spokesperson tried to brush off media questioning by saying this was a matter for the DFA to handle.

The DFA, for its part, did not quite know what to say — except to assure everybody that our diplomatic service was in close contact with their Malaysian counterparts to ensure the wellbeing of Filipinos in Sabah. There is not much our diplomats could do without clear policy instructions from the President.

The Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process Ging Deles jumped into the act, insisting the Sultanate was not left out of the peace deal — to deny claims the Sabah incursion was an expression of disgust by the Sultan. Deles, however, said nothing about the current standing of the Sabah claim in the framework agreement being worked out with the MILF, whose non-Tausog leaders are entirely disinterested in the Sultanate’s claims.

Instead of providing policy guidance however, Aquino delivered a conspiracy theory. That only added to the confusion.

Proprietary claims

The best discussion of the matter I heard so far was an impromptu radio interview with Amina Rasul-Bernardo.

Amina should be familiar with the matter. She is related to the Sultan. Her father, during the Macapagal and Marcos years, was the senior diplomat working on the claim. Her mother was the last Filipino Muslim to sit in the Philippine Senate, which oversees our foreign policy.

The crux of Amina’s presentation of the matter is the need to distinguish between two separate claims: the claim of sovereignty by the Philippines over Sabah and the proprietary claim of the Sultan’s estate as private individuals.

The Philippines’ claim of sovereignty over what is now part of the Malaysian Federation is basically dead in the water.

The US colonial government did not recognize inherited titles. Thus, as far as they were concerned, the Sultanate of Sulu and North Borneo did not legally exist. North Borneo was simply territory under the sway of the British Empire.

When the Malaysian Federation was formed, Manila hesitated pushing the Sultanate’s claims as its own. Manila’s demand that a referendum be called was granted. The population of North Borneo chose to be part of Malaysia. Any referendum called on the matter will undoubtedly be a repeat of the earlier one. The people of Sabah would rather be Malaysia’s poorest state than be part of the Philippines’ poorest region.

Subsequently, the Marcos government adopted the policy of not actively pursuing the claim. The international court hearing Manila’s claims subsequently dismissed the suit we filed for lack of interest on our part. As far as international law is concerned, the claim is a closed matter.

We have not formally dropped our sovereign claims, however. That is largely due to domestic considerations than to the international legal regime. There is no realistic possibility we can still move to dismember the Malaysian Federation.

What remains alive, however, are the proprietary claims of the Sultan’s estate. Those claims have firmer legal basis than our sovereign claims. Malaysia continues to pay some sort of rent to the Sultanate in accordance with a contract perfected over a century ago.

To state that in the simplest terms: the Sultan continues to own some land in Sabah. It is that private ownership, not some Philippine sovereign claim, he is asserting by sending his security guards over to Lahad Datu town.

This is no longer a matter of competing sovereign claims. The time has come to bury all illusions we can own North Borneo.

The policy matter at hand, therefore, is what the Manila government can do to support the Sultanate’s proprietary claims over parts of Sabah. Manila can, of course choose to do nothing and leave the Sultanate to its own devices. That, however, could stoke the embers of resentment, the ingredient that once before drove rebellion.

Rather than nurse paranoia about some conspiracy, it might be best that Aquino sit down with Amina and look at the real issues.