A Philippines consulate in Sabah will put an end to further claims, says former CM

KOTA KINABALU, June 28 — The Malaysian government should urge the Philippines to set up a consulate in Sabah if it wants to put an end to any claim on the state whether from a government or alleged heirs of the defunct Sulu Sultanate, said a former state chief minister here.

Datuk Yong Teck Lee, who is also Sabah Progressive Party president, said that a consulate here in Sabah is a definitive way of ending the decades-old territorial claim on the state, previously known as North Borneo.

“To move the success forward and to once and for all put a definite end to the Philippines/Sulu claim to Sabah, the Malaysian government must do its utmost in getting the Philippines government to set up a consulate in Sabah.

“By setting up a Philippines consulate in Sabah, the Philippines would be telling its own people in the Philippines to forget about their fanciful claim to Sabah,” he said in a statement here.

Yong, who is also a nominated assemblyman under the current Gabungan Rakyat Sabah government, said that the many Filipinos residing in Sabah badly needed consular services in the state which is being denied by their government.

Sabah has never been owned or ruled by Sulu or the Philippines at any time in the history of Sulu or the Philippines. There is a questionable grant of January 22, 1878 by the British to the Sultanate but was seen as void because of the preceding grant between Brunei and the British on December 29, 1877.

Yong, welcoming the recent decision by The Hague’s Court of Appeal in Malaysia’s favour, said that it brought relief to Sabahans and that the case had backfired on the claimants and their financial backers.

But he said there is also absolutely no need to bring this Philippines/Sulu claim to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) because Malaysia has already successfully defeated the attempt by the Philippines to bring its claim to the ICJ via the Pulau Ligitan/Sipadan case in 2001.

“The ICJ had ruled that the Philippines had failed to show that it has ‘an interest of a legal nature’ on the Ligitan/Sipadan case. The Philippines had attempted to intervene in the Ligitan/Sipadan case between Malaysia and Indonesia by saying that they (Philippines) owned the Ligitan/Sipadan islands by virtue of their claim on Sabah. That adventure by the Philippines was thrown out by the ICJ (in 2001),” he said.

“The Malaysian government must show to the Philippines/Sulu people that it is also in their own interests to stop their futile behaviour of claiming Sabah. Let the good neighbourly win-win relationship between Malaysian Sabah and Philippines Bangsamoro prosper together in peace,” he said.