A remarkable and consistent Aquino clan tradition of disdain for the Republic's Sabah claim

When Mrs Cory Aquino became president of the Philippines following the fall of President Marcos in 1986, she tried hard to convince the royal Kirams of the Sultanate of Sulu, acknowledged heirs to North Borneo (Sabah) to drop their proprietary claims to Sabah. 

We think that was a tack she chose to be able to convince Congress to drop PH sovereignty rights claim to Sabah. However, popular as she might be then, Mrs Aquino encountered strong resistance from the public and from the members of Congress. With that for a backdrop in 1987, the PH government was unable to officially drop the country's long standing Sabah claim despite Mrs Aquino's efforts.

The disdain for the nation's Sabah claim, it seems, has been a remarkable and consistent tradition in the Aquino clan. 

In 1963, Senator Lorenzo Sumulong, uncle of Mrs Cory Aquino, himself rose against the Republic's move to put forward its Sabah claim by openly siding with the British and publicly praising the vision of Malaya's then prime minister, Tunku Abdul Rahman. Sumulong ridiculed the efforts of then President Diosdado Macapagal and Senator Jovito Salonga, the country's Sabah claim champion.

In 1968, Mrs Aquino's husband, Senator Benigno Aquino Jr, exposed Operation Merdeka by sensationalising it as the 'Jabiddah Massacre'. Operation Merdeka, in fact, was the first physical attempt by the Republic to take Sabah back. Following Mr Aquino's denunciation of the covert operation, Kuala Lumpur began to finance and support the separatist movement by the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) that saw the secession wars in Mindanao for many decades.

There have been revelations recently too that Senator Ninoy Aquino had actually sought Malaysia PM Mahathir before his return to PH from exile to the effect that in exchange for Malaysia support for toppling President Marcos,  Mr Aquino (the father) would be president and once he became president, he vowed to the Malaysian leader that PH would officially drop the Sabah claim. 

In February 2013, Mrs Aquino's own son, Noynoy, himself elected to the Philippine presidency, has been doing all he can for the Philippine Sabah claim to be dropped even it it means 'cavorting' with Kuala Lumpur and sacrificing the Tausugs of Sulu who are being wiped out in Sabah by foreign military troops. In keeping with family tradition of disdain for the Philippine Sabah claim, and even as Filipino Tausugs are being slaughtered by Malaysia troops under orders of Najib Razak, President NoyNoy Aquino asks, "But what do you want me to do?"

~~ By Defenders of the Philippine Sabah and Spratly Claims
04 April 2013
  

Cory Aquino did not give away Sabah! Fact is fact! In other words, anti-Sabah proponents cannot use that argument

PLEASE BE WARNED: THE POSTER SAYING "SHE GAVE SABAH AWAY" IS WRONG!

IT IS NOT TRUE THAT MRS AQUINO GAVE SABAH AWAY... WE NEED NOT LIKE A PARTICULAR PRESIDENT BUT WE MUST STICK TO FACTS! 

WE ARE RATHER SURPRISED TO READ AN ASSERTION IN SOME POSTS IN OTHER PAGES ON FACEBOOK THAT PRESIDENT CORY AQUINO GAVE SABAH AWAY.... To assert such notion is to play right into Malaysia's thieving hands!

BEFORE ANYTHING, we would like to assure everybody that we do not profess to be a pro-Aquino or pro-Marcos community nor anti any one of them. We are Patriots and as such defenders of Philippine sovereignty above all else.

We believe that those who insist that Pres Cory Aquino gave away Sabah are playing right into Malaysia's hands. They don't have to be pro-Aquino or pro-Marcos or even anti any one of them but FACTS ARE FACTS. 

What is the basis of those accusing Mrs Aquino of "giving Sabah away?" The real question is what is the reason for saying that Mrs Aquino "gave Sabah away?" We have a suspicion that those who are asserting that the former president "gave Sabah away", in fact, oppose the nation's Sabah claim and use the tired, old, unfounded argument that Mrs Aquino had given Sabah away.

It is true that Mrs Aquino tried to convince the Kirams to give up or to abandon the Sabah claim In fact, Mrs Aquino, it was said, had tried to have a bill filed through Congress to officially drop the Sabah claim but the move received strong opposition and so was in itself dropped.

Besides, Mrs Aquino could not have given away Sabah until Republic Act 5446, which stipulates that Sabah is Philippine territory, is officially repealed. Understandably, Mrs Cory Aquino might not have been interested in getting it back or did not do what was needed to be done, eg.,taken Malaysia to the ICJ, but neither did she (she simply could not legally do it) relinquish sovereignty rights over Sabah which as everyone knows the Philippine government obtained under President Diosdado Macapagal when the Sultanate of Sulu, Sultan Esmail Kiram I officially transferred Sabah's sovereignty rights to the Republic on 12 Septe 1962 or a year before then Malaya Federation physically annexed Sabah. 

Moreover, the 1987 Constitution makes absolutely no mention of giving away sovereignty rights over Sabah which, again, the Philippines at the time possessed.

Here is Article 1 of the 1987 Constitution (promulgated under President Cory Aquino): 

ARTICLE I- NATIONAL TERRITORY

The national territory comprises the Philippine archipelago, with all the islands and waters embraced therein, and all other territories over which the Philippines has sovereignty or jurisdiction, consisting of its terrestrial, fluvial and aerial domains, including its territorial sea, the seabed, the subsoil, the insular shelves, and other submarine areas. 

Allow us to be emphatic: "...all other territories over which the Philippines has sovereignty" ...

Sabah and Article I of the 1987 Philippine Constitution

ARTICLE 1 OF THE 1987 CONSTITUTION 
(Under President Cory Aquino) 

ARTICLE I- NATIONAL TERRITORY
•The national territory comprises the Philippine archipelago, with all the islands and waters embraced therein, and all other territories over which the Philippines has sovereignty or jurisdiction, consisting of its terrestrial, fluvial and aerial domains, including its territorial sea, the seabed, the subsoil, the insular shelves, and other submarine areas.

"all other territtories over which the Philippines has sovereignty" = MEANS THAT SABAH IS PART OF THE PHILIPPINES BECAUSE SOVEREIGNTY RIGHTS OVER SABAH WERE OFFICIALLY TRANSFERRED (signed and sealed) TO THE REPUBLIC OF THE PHILIPPINES BY THE SULTANATE OF SULU ON 12 SEPT 1962 DURING THE TERM OF PRESIDENT DIOSDADO MACAPAGAL LONG BEFORE THE 1987 CONSTITUTION WAS PROMULGATED. HENCE, SABAH HAS NOT BEEN EXCLUDED AT ALL FROM THE SCOPE OF PHIL NATIONAL TERRITORY UNDER THE 1987 CONSTIUTION CONTRARY TO WHAT SOME BELIEVE.

~~ Administrators, Philippine Sabah Claim Forum

~~ Administrators, Defenders of the Philippine Sabah and Spratly Claims