UNDERSTANDING THE SABAH PROBLEM

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One factor that is essential in the comprehension of the Sabah problem is to understand that Sabah was only officially colonised by the British Crown in 1946 which means that UNTIL THEN, North Borneo (Sabah) WAS PART of the Sultanate of Sulu although leased. 

Despite Britain's colonisation of Sabah from 1946 until 1963, it is my opinion that Sabah's sovereignty, although compromised by the British colonisation, still legally belonged to the Sultanate of Sulu. However, we all know that the Sultanate of Sulu ceded full sovereignty of Sabah to the Philippine Republic on 12 Septemeber 1962 while it was still a colony of Britain.

On 31st August 1963, Britain granted Sabah (whose sovereignty rights had been ceded the year before to the Republic of the Phlippines) its independence

Sixteen days after Britain granted Sabah its independence in 1963, and despite PH protests, it was annexed to a new federation in the making called MALAYSIA instead of returning it either to the Sultanate of Sulu or to the Republic of the Philippines which had already inherited sovereignty rights over Sabah from the Sultanate by virtue of the transfer on 12 September 1962.

In 1968, while Malaysia had taken de facto control of Sabah, the Republic of the Philippines enacted a series of laws related to our baselines and one of these laws is the Republic Act 5446 which acknowledges title and dominion over Sabah, thus by PH law, Sabah is Philippine territory. RA 5446 is still in vigour.

As Law Professor Isagani Cruz says, Isagani Cruz, "President Noynoy faces an insoluble dilemma. If he believes that Sabah is part of the Philippines, he has to defend Sabah because Malaysia is attacking it. If he does not believe that Sabah is part of the Philippines, he opens himself up to impeachment, because Philippine law says that Sabah is part of the Philippines and he is sworn to uphold Philippine law. Talking of a conspiracy does not solve the problem; in fact, it is irrelevant if there is or there is no conspiracy. The dilemma has to do simply with his stand on Sabah itself."

To my mind, the Sultanate of Sulu, and by extension the royal heirs, is irrelevant in the PH claim because Sabah is already PH territory by PH law. The Philippine Republic, however, has contractual obligations which it signed when it accepted from the Sultanate of Sulu the full transfer of sovereignty rights in 1962 and one of these contractual obligations is to prosecute the claim and in so doing, help the Sultante of Sulu's proprietary rights to be recognised. So we cannot actually take it against the Sultanate for feeling doubly rebuffed. It is the Philippine Republic's contractual obligation to do it and the Government has been remiss in its obligations.

~~ By Anne de Bretagne
For the DEFENDERS OF THE PHILIPPINE SABAH & SPRATLY CLAIMS
05 March 2013

"SABAH IS NOT OWNED BY THE PHILIPPINE GOVERNMENT"

SHARING..

Sabah is NOT OWNED by the Philippine government but the Republic of the Philippines 'possesses' sovereignty rights over Sabah. However, the proprietary rights to the land belong to the Sultanate of Sulu heirs. There is a difference.

The Philippine government has NO ownership claim to Sabah land -- as in proprietary rights claim (in the same manner that Philippine government has NO ownership claim to your private lupa at bahay.)

So, sa madaling sabi, dalawang bagay po ito: SOVEREIGNTY RIGHTS & PROPRIETARY RIGHTS

The sovereignty rights to Sabah belong to the Republic by virtue of an official transfer made by Sultan Esmail Kiram I on 12 Sept 1962 witnessed by President Diosdado Macapagal. But the proprietary rights remain in the hands of the Sultanate of Sulu heirs.

Para po bang iyong sariling lupa at bahay at bahay ninyo maski sa dulo ng Pilipinas: kayo ang may-ari at sa inyo ang titulo ng pag-aari (proprietary rights) pero ang batas na susundin ay sa Republika, ang batas na umiiral ay sa Republika ng Pilipinas (sovereignty rights) pero hindi ibig sabihin na pag-aari ng gobyerno ang lupain.

DAGDAGAN PO NATIN ANG PALIWANAG at sana makatulong ito (pasensya na lang po sa Taglish explanation heheheh)

Tama po ang isang myembro natin na sabi niya na ang transfer ng sovereingty rights galing sa Sultanate ay FULL SOVEREIGNTY...

"Full Sovereignty" means full control but it doesn't signify proprietary rights to the piece of land. With 'full sovereignty', it would mean, the Republic will have full control of defense, police powers, foreign policy, taxation, execution of laws, coinage, education, health etc etc...

Allow us to illustrate what FULL SOVEREIGNTY means by comparing it to the framework agreement being devised between govt and MILF for a Bangsamoro: despite "genuine and full autonomy" proposed to cover the new political entity, sovereignty rights will be shared between the autonomous Bangsamoro govt and the Republic of the Philippines and basing it on the 10-points agreed between the MILF and the Republic, Bangsamoro will have police powers, capability to sign trade agreements with other countries, taxation, but because it is only shared sovereignty with the Republic, the Philippine govt will have control of national defense, foreign policy, coinage (meaning currency) and other aspects of sovereignty rights that usually belong to the STATE (national government), etc.

BUT in the case of Sabah, sultanate indeed transferred FULL sovereignty rights to Republic as in full control of Sabah to take control of all the instruments of governance and does not mean shared sovereignty rights with the Sultanate of Sulu (unlike with the proposed MILF Bangsamoro 'homeland' which is shared sovereignty.)