Sabah belongs to PH -- Locsin
Published Sep 5, 2019 09:15 am
By Charissa Luci-Atienza
The government, under President Duterte, is sticking to its stand that Sabah belongs to the Republic of the Philippines.
Foreign Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit / MANILA BULLETIN)
In a budget briefing Thursday, Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. reaffirmed the Philippines’ claim over Sabah after Lanao del Norte Rep. Khalid Dimaporo asked if the DFA has allocated funds for Sabah.
“We shall never have an Embassy in Sabah. To even think of it is an act of treason,” he told the House Committee on Appropriations.
Dimaporo even asked Locsin if there is any plan or any budget for an Embassy in Kota Kinabalu, to which the country’s chief diplomat replied in the negative.
“I appreciate the answers of the Good Secretary. When we were discussing the Organic Law, I am trying to push that Sabah is one of the parts of the Bangsamoro territory to claim that Sabah is part of the Philippines and not part of Malaysia. It is nice to know the DFA is pushing through with the national government stand that Sabah belongs to the Republic of the Philippines,” Dimaporo said.
Locsin cited that the Sabah claim was initiated during the administration of the late President Diosdado Macapagal.
“Sabah claim was pushed by Macapagal and my father (Teodoro Locsin Sr.). Although my father did not like President Marcos, he supported him in his reelection because Marcos was planning to take back Sabah and made my father a party to that plan,” he said.
"Our plan now is to keep things as they are. As to West Philippine Sea, we are careful not to make any act that can be interpreted as an abandonment of our Sabah claim whether we can go further than that, I probably would not, if I knew, then I don’t. I probably would not be allowed to say because that would be a matter of national security,” Locsin said.
The Philippines claims ownership of Sabah based on the title of the Sultan of Sulu who ceded proprietary rights over the land to the Philippine government in 1962.
The Philippine claim is based on the argument that the 1878 deed entered into by the Sultan with an Austrian named Gustavus Baron de Overbeck and an Englishman named Alfred Dent was a lease agreement.
Malaysia, however, is of the belief that it was a treaty of cession.
It was the late President Diosdado Macapagal who initiated the Philippine claim in 1961.
In 1950, the Philippine Congress adopted a “resolution expressing the sense of the Philippines that North Borneo belongs to the heirs of the sultan of Sulu and the ultimate sovereignty of the Republic of the Philippines and authorizing the President to conduct negotiations for the restoration of such ownership and sovereign jurisdiction over said territory.”
In 2009, former President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo signed a law on the country’s archipelagic baselines, which was upheld in 2011 by the Supreme Court, affirming the Philippine claim to Sabah.
The leadership of the Sultanate of Sulu and North Borneo (SSNB) had assured it would pursue its claim through peaceful means.
Sultan Phugdalu Kiram II said Sabah was given as a gift by the Sultan of Borneo to the Sultan of Sulu for helping quell a rebellion.
Foreign Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit / MANILA BULLETIN)
In a budget briefing Thursday, Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. reaffirmed the Philippines’ claim over Sabah after Lanao del Norte Rep. Khalid Dimaporo asked if the DFA has allocated funds for Sabah.
“We shall never have an Embassy in Sabah. To even think of it is an act of treason,” he told the House Committee on Appropriations.
Dimaporo even asked Locsin if there is any plan or any budget for an Embassy in Kota Kinabalu, to which the country’s chief diplomat replied in the negative.
“I appreciate the answers of the Good Secretary. When we were discussing the Organic Law, I am trying to push that Sabah is one of the parts of the Bangsamoro territory to claim that Sabah is part of the Philippines and not part of Malaysia. It is nice to know the DFA is pushing through with the national government stand that Sabah belongs to the Republic of the Philippines,” Dimaporo said.
Locsin cited that the Sabah claim was initiated during the administration of the late President Diosdado Macapagal.
“Sabah claim was pushed by Macapagal and my father (Teodoro Locsin Sr.). Although my father did not like President Marcos, he supported him in his reelection because Marcos was planning to take back Sabah and made my father a party to that plan,” he said.
"Our plan now is to keep things as they are. As to West Philippine Sea, we are careful not to make any act that can be interpreted as an abandonment of our Sabah claim whether we can go further than that, I probably would not, if I knew, then I don’t. I probably would not be allowed to say because that would be a matter of national security,” Locsin said.
The Philippines claims ownership of Sabah based on the title of the Sultan of Sulu who ceded proprietary rights over the land to the Philippine government in 1962.
The Philippine claim is based on the argument that the 1878 deed entered into by the Sultan with an Austrian named Gustavus Baron de Overbeck and an Englishman named Alfred Dent was a lease agreement.
Malaysia, however, is of the belief that it was a treaty of cession.
It was the late President Diosdado Macapagal who initiated the Philippine claim in 1961.
In 1950, the Philippine Congress adopted a “resolution expressing the sense of the Philippines that North Borneo belongs to the heirs of the sultan of Sulu and the ultimate sovereignty of the Republic of the Philippines and authorizing the President to conduct negotiations for the restoration of such ownership and sovereign jurisdiction over said territory.”
In 2009, former President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo signed a law on the country’s archipelagic baselines, which was upheld in 2011 by the Supreme Court, affirming the Philippine claim to Sabah.
The leadership of the Sultanate of Sulu and North Borneo (SSNB) had assured it would pursue its claim through peaceful means.
Sultan Phugdalu Kiram II said Sabah was given as a gift by the Sultan of Borneo to the Sultan of Sulu for helping quell a rebellion.