Sabah: Mourning a lost opportunity; PH should have gone with 'guns blazing'

In less than two weeks, PH will be mourning the 50th anniversary of the loss of Sabah to Malaya Federation... 

We had a lot going for us back then. We had in our possession the ultimate deed of transfer of sovereignty from the proprietary right holders of Sabah, we had a great defence force with highly trained and battle tested professionals and we had leaders with first class brains arguing for the Republic's right to receive full ownership of the domain. Indeed, there were many elements in our favour then even if we lacked the backing of a major ally and even as the Malaya Federation was being backed by its British masters... 

Could we have taken possession of Sabah 'legally' and diplomatically, i.e., through the UN, even without US backing? I don't think so. President Macapagal in all likelihood, the diplomat hors pair that he was known for, would not have approved of "going it alone." At the time, we would not have been bold enough to tackle the British in the UN without official US backing, our major trading partner, our masters so to speak whose policies we breathed and lived. True, President Macapagal could be stubborn as when he tweaked the US when he decided to change the date of PH independence but he knew that he could only go so far...

Now, as if the 'absence' of backing by a major ally was not bad enough, we also had in our midst then, a charismatic member of the Senate, an internationally famous ex-diplomat known for having flexed verbal muscles with Khruschev, who was fighting tooth and nail against the Republic's claim on behalf of the Malayans (and by extension, on behalf of the British) at a time when our own leaders were trying to hard to convince the British that they were wrong not to return Sabah to its rightful owners. He was the Philippines''Brutus' in the overall scheme of things. (His descendant is doing the same thing today.) I am convinced that 'Brutus' vitriolic assault on the Republic's claim gave Britain and Malaya the great excuse to say that because PH did not know what it wanted, they would be deciding the fate of Sabah. 

In hindsight, diplomacy and beautifully crafted words proved futile. We should have gone with guns blazing and physically battled to get Sabah back. It would or could have forced the great nations to stop and listen to us instead of allowing ourselves to keel over without a fight. If we had to lose, we would have had, at the very least, the satisfaction of having fought a battle that was worth fighting.

Today, we mourn the lost opportunity. Malaya, on the other hand, is jubilant. They not only have managed to steal Sabah from us and became extra-ordinarily rich, thanks to Sabah's resources, they have also kept us divided, and at war among ourselves in the South. However one may want to look at it, the Malayans have humiliated us into abject surrender. I am sure that their coup de grace will not be long in coming as they prepare to dismantle the Republic... 

But all is not lost! As ever, for as long as there is life, one must not give up! We may have lost a battle but not the war...

~~ Anne de Bretagne
for the Philippine Sabah Claim Forum
and for the Defenders of the Philippine Sabah and Spratly Claims
31 August 2013

President Macapagal’s State of the Nation Address, on the Filing of the Claim of Sovereignty over North Borneo 

28 January 1963  

Source: Extract from President Macapagal’s State of the Nation Address, delivered before a Joint Session of the Philippines Congress. Philippines Republic, Congressional Record, 5th Congress, 2nd Session, 28 January 1963, p.42  

The most important action taken in the field of foreign relations in the past year was the official filing on June 22, 1962, with the United Kingdom of the Philippine claim of sovereignty, jurisdiction and proprietary ownership over North Borneo as successor-in-interest of the Sultan of Sulu. 

We are gratified at the goodwill shown by the United Kingdom in holding the talks in London in pursuance of our note on June 22, 1962, in which talk an opportunity has been opened for a friendly scrutiny of the Philippine claim, taken with the security problems of South-east Asia.  

2. Contrary to allegation in some political quarters, this was not a precipitate action. We have personally studied this claim over a period of years. While serving in the Department of Foreign Affairs in 1946, upon a study of this claim in connection with our successful negotiation for the reacquisition of the Turtle Islands, we advocated the filing of this claim.  

3. In 1948, while serving in the Philippine Embassy in Washington, DC, we went over the claim with an American expert in Anglo-Saxon law in George Washington University who sustained the view that this is a valid claim. When we served in the Congress of the Philippines, we successfully authored and sponsored in 1950, a resolution for the filing of this claim. Upon becoming President of the Philippines, acting on the conviction that this was not only a valid claim but that its presentation was demanded by the national interest, it became our inescapable duty to act on the bipartisan resolution of the House of Representatives on April 24, 1962, that the claim be filed now or never.  

4. The situation is that the Philippines not only has valid and historic claim to North Borneo. In addition, the pursuit of the claim is itself vital to our national security. We could not merely view the placing of North Borneo under Malaya, without presentation and consideration of our legitimate claim to North Borneo. Our claim to North Borneo cannot be less than the claim of Malaya to the territory not only on the basis of superior juridical and historical rights but in the vital interest of our national security.  

5. Malaya has no valid claim or right to take over North Borneo. Furthermore, if through arbitrary arrangement, the Borneo territory is placed under Malaya, the latter cannot likely insure for long the security of North Borneo for the free world. A profound and farsighted contemplation of the present and potential security posture in the whole region will conclusively support the judgment that the restoration of North Borneo as part of the territory of the Philippines would be the durable measure that could best insure against territorial disequilibrium and restlessness in the area and could constitute the firm and stabilizing factor to maintain and safeguard the security of the region.  

6. The project to place North Borneo, together with Brunei and Sarawak, under Malaya has already provoked a revolt in Brunei. It can be expected that Indonesia will not settle down accepting the authority of Malaya over Sarawak, Brunei and North Borneo. Moreover, the proposed Federation of Malaysia is not in accordance with the principle of self-determination, which is the accepted way out of colonialism, but appears to be a continuation of colonialism based only on an expedient of false security.  

7. It was imperative that the Philippine claim be, as it was made because if North Borneo was not to be by itself independent but was to be placed under another state there is no valid reason why, the legal and historic basis of the Philippine claim, and considering that North Borneo is contiguous to Philippine territory and vital to our security, the new State to be given jurisdiction over North Borneo should not be the Philippines.  

8. It is vital to the security of the Philippines that North Borneo be not placed under the sovereignty and jurisdiction of another State, particularly a state on the Asian mainland like Malaya. In the event, God forbid, that Malaya succumbs to the potent communist threat on the Asian mainland, with North Borneo under Malaya, there would be created a situation in which a communist territory would be immediately at the southern frontier of the Philippines, which would pose a grave and intolerable threat to our country. Against such threat, we know that our people will fight to the death, for they will rather die fighting for freedom than live in slavery.  

PRINCIPLE OF SELF-DETERMINATION  

9. In laying claim to North Borneo in pursuance of the legal and historic rights and the security interest of the Philippines, we recognize the cardinal principle of self-determination of which the Philippines has been a steadfast adherent. In the prosecution of our valid claim, it is agreeable to us that at an appropriate time the people of North Borneo should be given an opportunity to determine whether they would wish to be independent or whether they would wish to be part of the Philippines or be placed under another state. Such referendum, however, should be authentic and bona fide by holding it under conditions, preferably supervised by the United Nations, that would insure effective freedom to the people of North Borneo to express their true and enlightened will.  

 Admin's NOTE: Thanks go to Filipina Maharlika for the President Diosdado Macapagal State of the Nation Speech document. Filipina Maharlika is one of the founding members of the Philippine Sabah Claim Forum.

• Link to extract from President D Macapagal's State of the Nation Address on the Republic's filing of sovereignty claim to Sabah (Philippine Sabah Claim Forum) 
• Photos: 
• President Macapagal with Indonesia's Soekarno and Malaya Federation's Tunku Abdul Rahman on the signing of the Manila Accord.
• President Macapagal with then Senate President Marcos. Both played pivotal roles in the Republic's sovereignty claim to Sabah. 

Inaction over Sabah crisis, Malaysia "incursion" in Mindanao and the 1963 Manila Accord: The President may be guilty of working against the interests of the Republic in the service of a foreign government

Tomorrow (or today depending on which side of the globe you are seated), 31 July is the 50th Anniversary of the signing of the Manila Accord... 

In an article by Vidal Yudin Weil for the Free Malaysia Today dated March 9, 2013, the writer called Najib to task after Najib's following pronouncement in Lahad Datu:

“The question of Sabah within Malaysia should not be disputed by anyone. Let not anyone underestimate Malaysia’s commitment to have Sabah within Malaysia forever. No one can dispute this, from within and outside the country. We will uphold the principle and fact of Sabah within Malaysia absolutely”. 

Writer Vidal insisted that Najib was wrong: "Najib is wrong in making unilateral claims that Sabah belongs to Malaysia when historical legal documents and agreements may indicate otherwise."

To prove his point, he enumerated the salient points in that Manila Accord: 

(i) the inclusion of Sabah into the formation of Malaysia is subject to the Philippines claim; 
(ii) and the Philippines’ claim on Sabah must be settled in the International Court of Justice (ICJ) run by the United Nations.

With implaccable logic, he said: "Therefore, until such time when the ICJ has decided, Malaysia does not have absolute ownership of Sabah."

Fifty years hence and PH is still in no man's land about where its loyalty and interests lay... Fifty years hence and PH still has not fulfilled its contractual obligations part of which is to prosecute the Sabah claim which by PH law, by virtue of Republic Act 5446, is Philippine territory. 

We were hoping that following the Tanduo siege and the in the aftermath of the Lahad Datu massacre of Filipinos who went to Sabah to finally stake their claim in February this year (because of the Republic's failure to honour its legal and moral obligations vis-à-vis the Republic and the Sultanate of Sulu), President Aquino now understands that he cannot give away Sabah without violating the law. 

But the sad part is that while President Aquino just may have realised that his hands are constitutionally tied and that he cannot do as he pleases overtly or publicly, i.e., give up the claim or give Sabah to Malaysia officially, it seems he has resorted to subterfuge when he both implicitly and explicitly sided with Malaysia on virtually everything during the critical Tanduo-Lahad Datu events that saw many of our countrymen arrested, abused, killed, and deported! It's as if he had sworn his personal loyalty to Malaysia for some personal debt which to us is not this nation's debt! 


By choosing to side with Najib and Malaysia rather than with the Sultanate of Sulu, the president is definitely guilty of violating the Republic's contractual obligation vis-à-vis the Sultanate of Sulu which was to prosecute the Sabah claim. 

The President must realise that his refusal or inaction to push for the recognition of the 1963 Manila Accord during this critical period after Malaysia killed many Tausugs, jailed and deported Suluks and when KL judiciary is about to sentence to the death penalty many of our countrymen, is tantamount to giving Najib and the Kuala Lumpur government the right 'to rape' Filipinos and to go ahead and plunder the Philippines by way of Sabah. 

I am sorry to say but no matter how we turn this Sabah issue around today, we see it no other way: The President may be guilty of working against the interests of the Republic in the service of a foreign government. 


~~ AdB
For the Philippine Sabah Claim Forum
and for the Defenders of the Philippine Sabah & Spratly Claims
30 July 2013


Related blog posts: 

• Najib bombastic, Aquino frightened but both are guilty of not honouring 1963 Manila Accord
• Sabah dispute, the Philippine claim and the International Court of Justice
• On Malaysia-engineered GPH-MILF "peace talks": NoyNoy Aquino's personal debt of gratitude to Malaysia is not the nation's debt
• Sabah's sovereignty 1946-1963: Although compromised by British colonisation, Sabah legally belonged to the Sultanate of Sulu
• ONLY LEGAL SOLUTION TO SABAH QUESTION IS TO HONOUR UN TREATY - 1963 MANILA ACCORD
• Beyond comprehension: PH Government's un-involved observer stance on Filipino actions to revive Sabah claim
• On Manila Accord of 1963: Malaysia prefers to lose 'national honour' than to lose Sabah
• Malaysian writer's Sabah conflict solution: Revisit the Manila Accord
• Lahad Datu Massacre, Sulu Sultanate Rights and the Manila Accord 1963
• United Nations Treaties No. 8029: Manila Accord 1963

Sulu ‘volunteers’ plan Sabah incursions

Sulu ‘volunteers’ plan Sabah incursions

The Sulu Sultanate on Sunday  said  it is sending more “volunteer” fighters to Sabah from Mindanao to reassert its territorial claim over it and to protect the Filipinos there who are being rounded up by Malaysian police.

Abraham Idjirani, spokesman of Sulu Sultan Jamalul Kiram III, said groups of Bangsa Suluk volunteers were preparing to sail to Sabah and join the 1,600-strong Royal Security Forces of the sultanate led by Kiram’s brother, Raja Muda Agbimuddin Kiram.

“They will be going to Sabah because of the un-Islamic rounding up of innocent civilians by the Malaysian security forces,” Idjirani said from Kiram’s residence in Taguig City.

“They feel it is their patriotic duty to protect their countrymen there and to show the world that Sabah is their homeland.”

Asked how many fighters were sailing to Sabah, Idjirani said they had no idea yet but the fighters would be going there quietly in waves or groups to elude the Malaysian and Philippine naval cordons.

Once in Sabah, they would be consolidating forces and communicating with Agbimuddin, who remains in Sabah since sailing there with 200 men in February.

“They are now driven by their belief that Malaysia does not own Sabah,” Idjirani said.

He said the volunteers would come from Sulu, Tawi-Tawi, Basilan and Zamboanga.

“Our leaders told us that these Bangsa Suluks have been itching to go to Sabah because they are angry over the Malaysians’ treatment of the Filipino residents of Sabah,” Idjirani said.

He said  some of the Sabah-bound volunteers would be armed, with many of them experienced in battle, although they would not be going to Sabah to wage war.

http://manilastandardtoday.com/2013/07/29/sulu-volunteers-plan-sabah-incursions/

China arms unified coast guard agency to handle sea conflict

 China arms unified coast guard agency to handle sea conflict

China is bent on showing the international community that it has indisputable jurisdiction over the waters over which China claims ownership.
China is now arming a united coast guard agency to prove its jurisdiction over the disputed waters.
China’s new unified coast guard agency has gone into operation, state media reported Tuesday amid maritime disputes with neighbors, and experts said more ships will be armed as a result.
The China Coast Guard integrates the functions of marine surveillance, the existing coast guard which came under the police, fisheries law enforcement and Customs’ anti-smuggling maritime police.
The divisions “that were not allowed to be equipped with weapons can be armed now,” Yang Mian, professor of international relations at the Communication University of China, was quoted as saying by the Global Times newspaper.
“The new agency will also make our law enforcement more powerful.” The new agency will “have reasonable and legal law enforcement equipment” and “detect and rapidly handle in accordance with the law acts that harm China’s maritime rights and interests”, Zhang Junshe, a military researcher, wrote in a commentary in the PLA Daily.

Tensions have been growing over China’s island disputes with Japan and other neighbors.
Chinese surveillance ships have frequently approached disputed islands in the East China Sea, which Japan controls and knows as the Senkakus but which China claims as the Diaoyus, after Tokyo nationalized some of them last September.
The Philippines and Vietnam have accused Beijing of aggressively asserting its extensive claims in the South China Sea, although tensions have abated slightly with Hanoi in recent weeks.
With an eye on the rows, the United States has strengthened military cooperation with Japan and the Philippines — which are both treaty-bound allies — as well as with former war adversary Vietnam.

http://www.tribune.net.ph/index.php/headlines/item/17062-china-arms-unified-coast-guard-agency-to-handle-sea-conflict

Fraudulent Sulu sultanate claimant Datu Fuad Kiram aims to legitimize sting operation

ATTENTION! TO THE UNIVERSITY OF THE PHILIPPINES:
 
We have just been informed that a group of charlatans headed by Datu Fuad Kiram and aided by his close-in handlers, are working hard, aiming 'hig'h in order to legitimise their sting operation and are exploiting the naivete of a UP student group: the UP Economics Society which is about to sponsor a symposium founded on the fraudulent claim by Datu Fuad Kiram and his handler Omar Kiram (not a Kiram nor a prince of the Tausug) that they are sultan of Sulu and Sabah and 'grand prince' of Sulu respectively.

We fear that the UP Economics Society which we understand is composed of students from the Philippine state university might be unwittingly lending their name to an economic scam by the group of Datu Fuad Kiram. The UP group must be informed. Their ignorance of Sabah claim history is most likely being exploited by said band of con artists.

We suggest that the UP Economics Society not allow the name of the University of the Philippines to be lent to such undertaking by a group of fraudulent sultanate of Sulu claimants.

However, if the UP student group could INVITE ALL THE CLAIMANTS TO THE THRONE TO THE SYMPOSIUM TO TACKLE THE Sulu Sultanate claim and to ask them about their purpose, then fine... Otherwise, the said UP students must exercise due diligence and inquire, get informed and learn about who is who in the Sultanate before they attach their name to a group of objectionable individuals such as Datu Fuad's and his handler's whose only purpose in life it seems is to use the nation's Sabah claim to try to get rich quick.

It is imperative for the members of the UP Economics Society not to risk their credibility as the nation's brightest of the bright students whose education is greatly subsidised by the Filipino taxpayers. One way to do it is to be cautious...extremely cautious that they are not exploited to satisfy the grandiose economic dream of Datu Fuad Kiram and his men for himself and for their band of fraudsters that can and will damage the nation's genuine claim to Sabah.

~ Administrators
Philippine Sabah Claim Forum
Defenders of the Philippine Sabah & Spratly Claims
16 July 2013

UN tribunal starts arbitration process on PHL-China sea dispute

UN tribunal starts arbitration process on PHL-China sea dispute

July 16, 2013 4:50pm

A United Nations tribunal has been convened in the Netherlands to look into a complaint filed by the Philippines questioning the legality of China’s massive territorial claim in the resource-rich South China Sea.

“The Philippine government is pleased that the Arbitral Tribunal is now formally constituted, and that the arbitration process has begun,” Foreign Affairs spokesman Raul Hernandez told a press briefing Tuesday.
   
The progress in the Philippines’s legal challenge against China comes amid increasing animosity between the two Asian neighbors due to their long-standing territorial conflict.

Manila and Beijing recently traded diplomatic barbs over the Philippines’s decision to seek international arbitration - the latest manifestation of a longstanding territorial feud between the two countries over South China Sea territories.

Recently, the conflict was reignited with tense confrontations between Chinese and Philippine vessels in two disputed shoals – Scarborough and Ayungin – off Manila’s western coasts.

At their first meeting on July 11, the President and Members of the Tribunal designated The Hague in the Netherlands as the seat of the arbitration and the Permanent Court of Arbitration as the Registry for the proceedings, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said.

Part of the process is to determine if the tribunal has jurisdiction over Manila’s complaint. The case will only proceed once the tribunal decides that the complaint filed by the Philippines has legal merit and falls under its jurisdiction.

“Whether they have decided jurisdiction, they will publicly announce this,” Hernandez said.

Manila pledged its “fullest cooperation” with the tribunal “in order to assure a fair, impartial and efficient process that produces a final and binding judgment in conformity with international law.”

http://www.gmanetwork.com/news/story/317703/news/nation/un-tribunal-starts-arbitration-process-on-phl-china-sea-dispute

Manila, Washington widen talks for military deal

Manila, Washington widen talks for military deal

MANILA (Reuters) - Washington and Manila have expanded talks on military cooperation to include possible U.S. funding to build facilities and the storage of U.S. humanitarian relief supplies, the Philippine envoy to the United States said on Tuesday.

The wider scope of the talks for joint use of civilian and military facilities signals rapidly warming security ties between the allies as the Philippines looks to the U.S. administration to help counter a newly assertive China.

The Philippines has ruled out granting permanent basing rights to Washington, Ambassador Jose Cuisia said, but it would give U.S. warplanes and warships wider access to Philippine bases on a temporary and rotational basis, helping the Asian nation improve its minimum defence capability.

The increasing rotational presence of U.S. forces in the country is covered by the 1998 Visiting Forces Agreement, but a new arrangement would be needed if Washington built facilities to support its temporary deployment to the Philippines.

"We need to expand (the 1998 pact) further because we may have to build some additional facilities," Cuisia told reporters in the Philippine capital.

The two countries have been in talks since 2011 for "joint use" of civilian and military facilities in the former U.S. colony.

http://news.yahoo.com/manila-washington-widen-talks-military-deal-082344483.html