PHILIPPINE-MALAYSIA DISPUTE OVER SABAH

ASIA-PACIFIC SOCIAL SCIENCE REVIEW

Volume 7 Number 1 December 2007
FERNANDEZ,
E.S.
53
De La Salle University-Manila

RESEARCH NOTES # 1

Philippine-Malaysia Dispute over Sabah:

A Bibliographic Survey
Erwin S. Fernandez
Department of Filipino and Philippine Literature,
University of the Philippines, Diliman

The Philippine-Malaysia dispute over Sabah was, and still is, a contentious diplomatic issue. In
the interest of understanding its complexity (and one cannot discount that someone might be
interested in the near future), a bibliographic essay, one that lists all available literature which
directly or obliquely deals with the subject, is here undertaken. Thus, this work has compiled a
list of books, journal articles, theses, dissertations, and monographs, introduced with brief notes
on their publication arranged chronologically and thematically and pointing out some major
points that might provoke the reader into engaging into one or more of its debatable aspects.
This bibliographic survey in a way assesses the production of knowledge around the PhilippineMalaysia dispute over Sabah.
KEYWORDS: Philippine claim to Sabah, Philippine-Malaysia relations

The thorny issue of Sabah in terms of its diplomatic

and political significance between the Philippines and
Malaysia has been dealt with in a number of legal
and historical articles, books and monographs.
Although some books partly discuss Sabah, they
provide relevant and interesting information about its
other unknown but crucial aspects. This bibliographic
survey aims to collect and appraise pertinent
materials, primary and secondary sources with
respect to the dispute over Sabah.
As a dependency of the Sulu Sultanate before
and after the Deed of 1878,1 Sabah was an integral
part of Sulu territory. Although the British North

Borneo Company assumed the territorial rights

over Sabah from 1878 to 1946, which period was
interrupted only by the outbreak of World War II,
still Sabahs historical development before and after
1878 should be situated in the context of Sulus
history. On this basis alone, Sabah should be
incorporated as part of the areas to be studied in
Philippine history, or in smaller scale and scope,
in the history of Sulu and Mindanao. However,
before 1675, 2 Sabah belonged to the Sultanate
of Brunei and as such, Sabah was crucial in the
historical and political development of Brunei as
a sultanate.

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MACAPAGAL: ESTABLISHING THE

PHILIPPINE CLAIM
Sabah, also called North Borneo at present,
belonged to the territory of Malaysia. The Philippine
government had formally filed a claim to Sabah
during the administration of President Diosdado
Macapagal on the basis of a historical and legal
fact. His successor, President Ferdinand Marcos
initially took a conciliatory posture towards
Malaysia; but in 1968, the Jabidah massacre, as
will be explained later, was exposed bringing the
two parties to the claim in constant state of
insecurity. Until now, the Philippine claim to Sabah
has been suspended in animation for both parties
concerned. As of press time, the Philippine
government has not issued any pronouncement to
withdraw its claim to Sabah; while Malaysia takes
a wait-and-see attitude toward the issue, although
underneath, seemingly peaceful relations are
maintained, between the two countries. Malaysia,
in an effort to help the Philippine government
resolve the secessionist problem in Mindanao, acts
as negotiator and mediator between the Moro
Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and the Philippine
government. Nonetheless, the Sabah dispute still
remains.
Although the Philippine government acted on
several measures to express its intentions on
Sabah, only during the time of Macapagal did the
claim really take its necessary course. When the
North Borneo Cession Order of 1946 3 was
announced and published six days after Philippine
independence from the United States, Francis
Burton Harrison, former governor-general and now
special adviser to the Republic on foreign affairs,
noted the political and legal impact of the said
Cession order and deemed it as an illegal act, as it
unilaterally entered into an agreement without
consulting other parties involved. In this case, the
other party was the Sultanate of Sulu, which under
the present setup was under the sovereignty of the
Philippine Republic. In 1950, after a careful study
of the Philippine claim, Macapagal, then a
congressman together with other colleagues filed
a resolution for the pursuance of the claim by the

VOL. 7 NO. 2

government. A year later, the Philippine Congress

enacted a statute, ex abundante cautela,4 that the
establishment of a consulate in Singapore should
not be viewed as a waiver to the Philippine claim.
By virtue of the Ramos Resolution in 1962, which
urged Macapagal to execute measures in pursuit
of the claim to Sabah. This initiated a series of
diplomatic engagements between the Governments
of the Philippines and the United Kingdom.
The result of these exchanges of notes between
the Philippines and the United Kingdom through
their respective diplomatic officials was the meeting
held in London from January 28, 1963 to February
1, 1963. The Philippine delegation, composed of
Ambassador Salvador P. Lopez as vice-chairman,
Defense Secretary Macario Peralta Jr., Justice
Secretary Juan R. Liwag, Senator Raul S.
Manglapus, Congressmen Godofredo P. Ramos
and Jovito R. Salonga and Ambassador Eduardo
Quintero, was led by Vice President Emmanuel
Pelaez as chairman. In this meeting, the Philippine
panel outlined the historical and legal foundation
of the Philippine claim vis--vis the arguments
presented by the British delegation.
The Philippine government published the
proceedings of this meeting under the title
Philippine Claim to North Borneo Volume I
(1964). Emmanuel Pelaez, Vice President and
concurrently Secretary of Foreign Affairs in his
preface of the book, wrote that it was released to
put forward and stake the Philippine claim to North
Borneo on valid and legal grounds. This book has
four parts. The first part starts with excerpts from
the presidents State of the Nation Address with
reference to the claim to North Borneo; followed
by the second part, the Opening Statement of Vice
President Pelaez in the British-Philippine Talks held
in London. The third part The Historical and Legal
Bases of the Philippine Claim to North Borneo
lays the legal and historical arguments of the
Philippine claim, which includes the statements
made by Congressman Salonga before the London
Ministerial Meeting and by Mr. Eduardo Quintero
before the Legal Committee. The appendices,
which constitute the last part of the book, contain
33 copies of the original documents.5 One was in

PHILIPPINE-MALAYSIA DISPUTE OVER SABAH

the original Spanish while some have been

translated into English from the original Arabic and
Malay texts. Others had been originally written in
English. These form the basis of the Philippine claim
over Sabah and the preceding diplomatic
communication between the Philippines and the
United Kingdom.
Macapagal was forced to initiate the filing of
the claim of Sabah because Sabah was being
considered as a member of the proposed concept
of Malaysia broached by Prime Minister Tengku
Abdul Rahman on May 27, 1961 in Singapore.
After the London talks, the United Kingdom
agreed to relinquish its sovereignty and jurisdiction
over Singapore, Sarawak and North Borneo in
favor of the creation of the Federation of Malaysia.
On September 16, 1963, instead of the scheduled
August 31, 1963, after the conduct and results of
the United Nations Malaysia Mission were
known, the Federation of Malaysia was
established. Macapagal, with expressed reservation
on the result of the UN Mission, refused to
recognize the government of Malaysia in the belief
that it would prejudice the Philippine claim to North
Borneo and recalled the Philippine Ambassador in
Kuala Lumpur. Only in August 1964 were the
consular relations between the two countries
reestablished after Macapagal met the Tungku in
Phnom Penh.
MARCOS: FOMENTING AND
MANAGING A CRISIS
When Marcos assumed the reins of government,
relations with Malaysia were still unstable and
insecure. It was only in June 1966 that both
governments, with the plan of raising their own
consulates to embassies, issued a communiqu.
It was also during this administration that the
second tome of the Philippine Claim to North
Borneo (Sabah) Volume II (1967) was published
barely three years after the first. This volume was
divided in to two parts excluding the Appendices.
Part One Historical Notes on the Philippine
Claim to North Borneo consisted of six sections

FERNANDEZ, E.S.

55

namely: The Disputed Territory; The Sulu

Sultanate Institution; Relations of the Sultan of
Sulu with Foreign Powers; the British North
Borneo Company; The Transfer of the North
Borneo Territory from the Company to the British
Crown; and The Transfer of the North Borneo
Territory from the British Crown to Malaysia. Part
One was the result of a study by an ad hoc
committee composed of UP Professors Cesar
Adib A. Majul, Perfecto Fernandez, and Serafin
D. Quiason among others. Part Two was the
Report on the Anglo-Philippine Talks held in
London from January 28 to February 1, 1963
(Extract). The Appendices include: the various
multilateral agreements among the three countries
Philippines, Malaysia and Indonesia; and
diplomatic communications between the
Philippines and Malaysia, the Philippines and
Indonesia, and Great Britain and the Philippines
from August 1962 to January 1966.
Only later would the Marcos administration
face the critical point of the Philippine claim and
the possible breakdown of Philippine-Malaysia
relations when the Jabidah massacre controversy
in March 1968 was exposed. Moros had been
recruited for a plan to stage a rebellion and eventual
occupation of Sabah under the codename Project
Merdeka. This led to the Bangkok Talks from June
17 July 15, 1968 between the representatives of
the Philippines and Malaysia, in an effort to settle
the dispute. However, the talks ended in failure
and further worsened the diplomatic relations
between the two countries. In September 1968,
the Philippine Congress passed a law known as
Republic Act No. 5446, which categorically stated
that this act is without prejudice to the delineation
of the baselines of the territorial sea around the
territory of Sabah, situated in North Borneo over
which the Republic of the Philippines has acquired
dominion and sovereignty (Noble, 1977, p. 181).
In November of the same year, diplomatic ties
between the two countries were severed. Only a
year later in December did the Philippines and
Malaysia resume diplomatic relations.
This period from 1968 to 1976 saw an upsurge
on the number of publications on the Philippine

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claim to Sabah. Marcos himself had issued policy

statements about the Philippine claim as it was
affected by the disruption of diplomatic relations
with Malaysia. In a radio-television chat on July
21, 1968, a transcript of which was published as
Our stand on North Borneo issue, Marcos, one
day after the withdrawal of Philippine diplomatic
corps in Kuala Lumpur, reiterated the Philippine
government pacific policy in its efforts to pursue
the claim and advocated the recourse to filing the
case at the International Court of Justice (ICJ). In
another television interview on September 22,
1968, Marcos issued another policy statement
published as Pursue Sabah claim by peaceful
means, in which he maintained his stand on the
legality of the Philippine claim and that his
administration will pursue it peacefully. He also
assured the public that the government was ready
for any act of military aggression. When Moro
secessionism in the South was rearing its ugly head
and Sabah turned out to be the staging ground for
the rebels, Marcos in his 49-page essay Breaking
the stalemate: towards a resolution of the Sabah
question (197- )6 decided to withdraw the claim
for it is sufficient in my judgment that withdrawal
of the claim is in the overall interest of the Republic;
that is the key to stability and peace and
development of our Southern borders (p. 48).
This statement, however, was not tantamount to
withdrawing the claim per se because it was not
legally binding on both the Philippines and
Malaysia; but it was a tactic to defer immediate
resolution of the conflict. Nonetheless, these essays
and the other materials were primary sources and
are essential in any study to be undertaken on the
thinking of Marcos with regard to Sabah during
this period.
Meanwhile, the Philippine government also
published a booklet The Facts about Sabah
(1968) containing a question-and-answer narrative
on the Philippine claim written for the enlightenment
of the general public. On this same year, the
government also published the Memorandum on
the Philippine claim to North Borneo containing
61 points of clarification regarding issues
surrounding the Sabah question with the last point

VOL. 7 NO. 2

arguing for the return of North Borneo to the

rightful sovereign and owner, the Republic of the
Philippines as the best solution of this dispute
(p. 63). Narciso Ramos, the Secretary of Foreign
Affairs, in his Philippines brings the Sabah
dispute to the United Nations (1968), the text
of the statement he delivered before the UN
General Assembly on October 15, 1968,
specifically called for the Malaysia case to be
submitted to the World Court in concurrence with
the clamor of Arturo Tolentino, member of the
Philippine delegation to the United Nations in his
The Philippines challenges Malaysia to bring
the Sabah issue to the world court (1969), a
text of his reply to the Malaysian statements of
October 15 & 16, 1968 delivered before the UN
General Assembly on October 25, 1968. Tolentino
first issued a succinct rebuttal to the points made
by Mr. Radakrishna Ramani of Malaysia, and then,
dared Malaysia to bring the dispute to the
International Court of Justice. Constancio B.
Maglana, a member of the House of
Representatives published Sabah is Philippines
(1969), a privilege speech delivered on March 27,
1968, which, besides laying the basis for the
Philippine claim to Sabah, also advocated the
prosecution of the claim.
One of the first foreign scholars to have
extensively analyzed the Philippine claim to Sabah
was Michael Leifer, author of the monograph The
Philippine claim to Sabah (1968). There were a
number of Filipino or foreignauthored articles
or pamphlets published on the claim. These
included the articles of Lorenzo Sumulong, A
Report on Malaysia and on the Greater Malayan
Confederation in connection with the Philippine
claim to Sovereignty to a portion of North Borneo
(1962); Bernabe Africa, The Legal Status of the
British Occupation of North Borneo (1963);
Martin Meadows, The Philippine Claim to North
Borneo (1962); Pacifico Ortiz, Legal Aspects
of the North Borneo Question (1963); and Leigh
R. Wright, Historical Notes on the North Borneo
Dispute (1966). Some of these articles were legal
in nature; some dealt with the issue historically and
legally in the context of Philippine and Malaysian

PHILIPPINE-MALAYSIA DISPUTE OVER SABAH

claims on Sabah. However, Leifers 75 pagenarrative was a major departure from these articles
and a contribution to the Sabah issue since it was
the first to put it in its proper historical context.
The monograph provides a good background of
the Philippine claim to Sabah although it relied
heavily on the volume published by the Philippine
government.7 The writer, once a visiting research
associate at the Institute of Asian Studies in UP in
1965, utilized newspaper articles as source
materials and other relevant articles and books in
order to place the Sabah issue in the context of
the Macapagal administration from 1961 to 1965.
Leifer analyzed Macapagals statesmanship on the
issue as more probably related to diplomatic gain
than to expectation of substantial domestic political
advantageinitiated by a man whose sense of
vision was imperfect (pp. 72-74).
Under the auspices of the National Historical
Commission, a conference on Sabah was held and
the proceedings were published in a book entitled
Symposium on Sabah in 1969. Invited speakers
were Dr. Serafin D. Quiason who talked about the
English trade expansion in Mindanao and Sulu in
English Trade and Politics in the Mindanao-Sulu
Area: 1684-1888; Dr. Cesar Adib Majul who
documented the acquisition of Sabah by the Sulu
Sultanate in The Sulu Sultanate and its Original
Acquisition of Sabah; Atty. Ethelwoldo E.
Fernandez who dissected the legal aspects of the
Philippine claim in The Philippine Claim to Sabah:
Legal Aspects; Mr. Armando D. Manalo who
narrated the historical development of the Philippine
claim in Historical Aspects of the Philippine Claim
to Sabah; and Prof. Rolando N. Quintos who
explored the possible alternatives for the solution
of the Sabah dispute in The Sabah Question:
Prospects and Alternatives.
The latter, Prof. Quintos, offered some thoughtprovoking ideas about possible alternatives for the
Sabah question. The other articles were mere
reiterations of the Philippine governments position
on the claim. The first two articles were historical
studies on the political and economic development
of the Sulu Sultanate. Prof. Quintos, on the other
hand, speaking in his private capacity as a citizen

FERNANDEZ, E.S.

57

of the Philippines, argued that the issue of Sabah

should be seen in its two aspects: first, the legal
aspects of the claim as regards the proprietary
rights of the heirs of the Sultanate; and second,
the question of political jurisdiction over Sabah.
In order to solve the deadlock between the
Philippines and Malaysia during that time, Prof.
Quintos arrived at his idea of a just settlement of
the dispute: Let the Philippines be willing to accept
the justice of the Malaysian appeal to selfdetermination and accept as final the conclusion
of the U.N. Secretary General of September 1963,
if, in return, the Malaysians are willing to submit
the purely legal claim of the Philippines in support
of the proprietary rights of the Kiram heirs in Sabah
to the World Court or to a mutually acceptable
mediating body (pp. 82-83).
CONTESTING LEGAL CLAIMS
It would be very interesting to compare the work
of Atty. Ethelwoldo E. Fernandez and other legal
articles written by Filipinos8 with the work of nonFilipinos, namely Malaysian Mohammed bin Dato
Othman Ariff, The Philippine Claim to Sabah:
Its Historical, Legal and Political Implications
(1970), which discusses extensively the legal issues
surrounding the claim; and Singaporean S.
Jayaratnams The Philippine Claim to Sabah
which was serialized in three parts in the Singapore
Undergrad.
Ariffs work was submitted as his thesis for the
Diploma in International Law in 1967, the product
of a two-year postgraduate course at Cambridge
University. He was affiliated with the Office of the
Attorney General in Malaysia. The book provided
a brief background of the dispute in Chapter 1 while
Chapter 2 and 3 articulated the documented and
legal bases of the British claim to Sabah citing
specific treaties, agreements and acts. In an incisive
legal analysis, the author aimed to demolish the legal
basis of the Philippine claim to Sabah point by point
in Chapter 4. In Chapter 5, the author further
clarified the legal foundation of the United
Kingdoms claim to Sabah based on possession

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and consolidation through peaceful and continuous

display of State activities and her interests and
relations in the territory, coupled with fact of
acquiescence on the part of both the Sultans of
Brunei and Sulu and of the other States of the state
of affairs existing then(p. 49). In the subsequent
chapter, the author provided the basis for the
integration of Sabah to Malaysia and cited the
principle of self-determination, the Sabahans
having already expressed their desire to remain in
the Federation. In the concluding chapter, the
author suggests, that in view of the lack of viability
of certain modes of settlement like the filing of the
claim at the International Court of Justice or by
way of negotiation, conciliation and other modes
of settlement, peaceful settlement of the dispute
would require the Philippines to drop the claim
and concentrate all their efforts to work closely
and cooperate with Malaysia within the context of
ASA and ASEAN (p. 64). However, this kind of
suggestion was unacceptable, at least to the heirs
of the Sultan, given their proprietary claims to
Sabah, as noted by Prof. Quintos.
S. Jayakumar was the vice-dean of the Faculty
of Law, University of Singapore. He was of the
opinion that the Philippine case is weak and
tenuous (25 November 1969: 10). Following
the study of Mohammad bin Dato Othman Ariff,
Jayakumar also invoked the idea of effective
occupation on the part of Great Britain of Sabah
since 1878 which granted the British North Borneo
Company a charter of corporate character. The
author contended that the Philippine claim is at
most, an abstract or inchoate one based on the
historically derivative rights of the heirs of the Sultan
of Sulu (Ibid). Neither the Philippines nor the heirs
of the Sultan have exercised sovereignty or been
in effective occupation of Sabah since 1878. The
Philippines formally presented its claim only in
1962. United Kingdom was the State, which had
effective occupation until 16 September [1963]
when Sabah became part of Malaysia in
accordance with the wishes of the people (as
determined by the UN Secretary-General).
Malaysia, for purposes, of international law, is now
the State in effective occupation and exercising
sovereignty over Sabah (Ibid.).

VOL. 7 NO. 2

On the contrary, the Philippine case as stated

in the paper of Atty. Fernandez was premised on
the historical and legal interpretation of the 1878
Deed of Lease (for the British, it was cession)
executed by the Sultan of Sulu to Baron de
Overbeck and Alfred Dent. The position taken by
the government with regard to the transfer of
sovereignty from the British North Borneo
Company to the British Crown of Sabah was illegal
and an act of naked political aggrandizement
somewhat imperialistic. Hence, the transfer of
sovereignty from the British Crown to the
Federation of Malaysia of Sabah was unwarranted
since the Philippines had a claim on Sabah. The
Philippines preferred the settlement of the dispute
by the International Court of Justice for the
following reasons: (1) the World Court is an
impartial body; (2) the Philippine claim to Sabah
is a legal issue to be adjudicated by a third party
and (3) the World Court as the third party would
objectively judge the case base on its legal merits
and not on political passions or other extrajudicial
considerations.
Thus, anyone interested in the legal assertions
of both parties should consult and study the
above articles besides other writings on the
subject. It would be very illuminating if one, who
is armed with a legal education especially in
international law, could compare the legal
arguments of both sides.
THE CLAIM AND ITS RELATION TO
FOREIGN POLICY
An elaboration of some aspects partially
explored by Michael Leifer can be seen in the work
of Gerald Sussmans The Sabah claim and
Maphilindo: a case study of Philippine foreign
policy decision-making (1975), a Masters thesis
submitted to the defunct Philippine Center for
Advanced Studies (PCAS) in UP. Sussman looked
at the creation and demise of MAPHILINDO,
Macapagals brainchild and a modified version of
the Greater Malayan Confederation as a
response to regional tension (p. 48) caused by

PHILIPPINE-MALAYSIA DISPUTE OVER SABAH

the Philippine claim to Sabah and Sukarnos

konfrontasi policy against Malaysia.
The most extensive work on the Philippine claim
was Lela Garner Nobles Philippine Policy
toward Sabah: Claim to Independence (1977),
an expanded and revised version of her Ph.D. thesis
titled The Philippine Claim to North Borneo at
the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy in
1965. Nobles contention was, although the
Philippines could gain little from the pursuit of the
claim, Philippine foreign policy on the Sabah
Question from Macapagal to Marcos was basically
a demonstration of Philippine independence from
external interference, namely the US, and an
attempt to improve the national image. Noble
studied Philippine policies pertinent to the claim
from its historical antecedents until 1976. In other
words, the work covered Philippine policies on the
claim during the Macapagal and Marcos
administration. The study, however, is limited as it
covered only the first twelve years of the Marcos
regime. It is open to any scholar, therefore, to
continue with a study of state policies on the
Philippine claim to Sabah during the remaining nine
years of the Marcos regime. The author of this
essay, for one, has planned to undertake this in his
preliminary work entitled Marcos and the
Philippine-Malaysia Dispute over Sabah (19651986).
Nobles work can be seen as an update of the
dissertation written by Nestor M. Nisperos
submitted to the University of Pittsburgh in 1969.
Nisperos focused on Philippine foreign policy with
special reference to the claim before 1969 and
thus, was able to discuss such policy during the
first term of President Marcos as well as
antecedents to these policies crafted by previous
administrations.
Paridah Abd. Samad and Darusalam Abu
Bakar (1992) wrote Malaysia-Philippine
Relations: The Issue of Sabah, which tackled and
discussed the the pattern of relations between
Malaysia and the Philippines in the context of the
Sabah dispute (p. 555). However, the reader is
warned about the papers scholastic integrity.
Some passages of the paper were intentionally lifted

FERNANDEZ, E.S.

59

from various sources without citing the authors. It

was outright plagiarism and the following is an
example. On page 554, first paragraph, the second
and third sentences were deliberately lifted from
the speech of the Malaysian Ambassador to the
Philippines Datuk Emam Mohammed Haniff during
a symposium at Ateneo de Manila University,
September, 1989 subsequently published in the
Foreign Affairs Journal (1989). There are other
passages taken from other sources without the
necessary citations. Nonetheless, the paper
presented political and security repercussions of
the Sabah dispute between Malaysia and the
Philippines with regard to the Moro secessionism
in the South, the overlapping of territorial
boundaries, Malaysian incursion into Philippine
waters, the issue of Filipino refugees and illegal
immigrants in Sabah from the Macapagal to the
Aquino administrations.
A recent publication that tackled the Sabah issue
was Arnold M. Azurins Beyond the Cult of
Dissidence in Southern Philippines and Wartorn Zones in the Global Village (1996). Part
Two of Azurins work was particularly devoted to
the Sabah claim. One interesting sidelight of this
work was that Azurin convincingly argued for the
dropping of the Philippine claim, which he labeled
as irredentist and retrogressive, quoting the
Filipino Muslim leader Jainal Rasul who had
pointed out: Except perhaps for the proprietary
rights over the Sabah claim of the Sultan and other
concessions for Region 9, the better part of
wisdom is to drop this claim, once and for all, in
order to face realities and promote better ASEAN
relations (p. 116).
A more recent study on Sabah in the context of
Bangsa Sug (Sulu Nation) was Asiri Abubakars
Bangsa sug, Sabah and Sulus quest for peace
and autonomy in Southern Philippines (2000).
This doctoral dissertation dealt with the continuing
sense of identification among the Sulus with Sabah
and its implications to Philippines-Malaysia
relations and the peace process in Southern
Philippines particularly the quest for autonomy
among the Sulus. (p. xi) Abubakar makes a case
rather belatedly for the inclusion of two important

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issues in the negotiation between the government

of the Philippines and the Moro National Liberation
Front (MNLF) that had been overlooked. These
are the identification of Sulus with Sabah through
the defunct Sulu Sultanate which is further
reinforced with the influx of Filipino immigrants to
Sabah; and the strategic location for trade of the
Sulu-Sabah area since the heyday of the Sultanate
which will continue to play a significant role within
the Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines East
Asian Growth Area (BIMP-EAGA). Abubakar,
therefore, provides a new angle and a fresh
perspective on how to look at the Moro problem
in the South tha can be applied in the continuing
negotiation of the Philippine government with the
Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).
OUTSIDERS VIEW (OR MAINLY THE
BRITISH SIDE OF THE QUESTION)
Other books could be of interest to anyone
studying the Philippine claim, some of which
provide the historical development of Sabah.
These could open perspectives of outsiders on the
claim.
K. G. Tregonning, former Raffles Professor of
History in the University of Singapore, wrote A
History of Modern Sabah 1881-1963 (1965) first
published as Under Chartered Company Rule
(1958). The present edition includes a chapter
dealing with Sabah as a British colony from 1946
to 1963. The author utilized unexploited papers of
the British North Borneo Company in tin trunks
in London still to be sorted in order to narrate first
the failed American attempt to colonize North
Borneo and then, the vicissitudes of the companys
growth, expansion and administration of North
Borneo. The position of the author regarding the
Philippine claim on Sabah can be summarized as
follows: (1) the agreement between the Sulu Sultan
and Dent and Overbeck was one of a cession and
not a lease9; (2) several treaties and international
conventions had excluded North Borneo from the
territory of the Philippines either during the Spanish
or American period.10 K. G. Tregonning also wrote

VOL. 7 NO. 2

North Borneo (1960) a travel book he composed

after he spent two months there in 1957.
Originally Michael H. Bakers MA thesis
submitted to Stanford University Sabah: the First
Ten Years as a Colony, 1946-1956 (1965) should
be read side by side with Tregonnings. Baker
studied and assessed the ten-year postwar
development in Sabah in terms of political
governance, trade and industry, social services,
agriculture and communications after devoting a
chapter on Sabahs history from its earliest history
to the advent of World War II.
Leigh R. Wright wrote The origins of British
Borneo (1970), a book based on the authors
thesis presented for a Ph. D. degree at the
University of London. Wright explored British
policy changes from 1860 to 1888 from having
commercial interests on the island to eventually
lording over it under a chartered company. Wrights
study reveales that the shift was mainly a reaction
to the French presence in Indochina, also fueled
by German interests on the area, which led Great
Britain to sign an agreement with Germany and
Spain to delineate and secure her colonial sphere
in Borneo.
In Modernization in East Malaysia, 19601970 (1972), James P. Ongkili examines the
modernization program of Borneo and Sarawak,
referred to as East Malaysia, that begun during the
colonial period from 1946 to 1963 and intensified
after their incorporation into the Federation of
Malaysia. Nonetheless, the book discusses briefly
the Philippine claim at the end of Chapter 2. In
contrast to Ariffs offer but in consonance with Prof.
Quintos proposal, at the conclusion of the chapter,
Ongkili advocates the settlement of the dispute by
paying the Sulu Sultans heirs for their proprietary
rights.11
In Chapter Four of The politics of belonging:
political change in Sabah and Sarawak (1974)
Margaret Clark Roff includes a whole chapter on
the political situation in Sabah between 1962 and
1970 with a note in passing about the Philippine
claim. Roffs work, especially this chapter, can be
used as a way of seeing the claim in the context of
Sabahs politics.

PHILIPPINE-MALAYSIA DISPUTE OVER SABAH

Nicholas Tarling, author of various books on

Southeast Asia, in his well-researched Sulu and
Sabah: a study of British policy toward the
Philippines and North Borneo from the late
eighteenth century (1978) situates Sulu and
Sabah in the context of British policy beginning
in the 18th century until 1963. For anyone who
wishes to study the Philippine claim to Sabah,
Tarlings book is an essential contribution toward
understanding the dispute. Regarding his appraisal
on the bases of the claim, Tarling demonstrates a
rare unbiased position only a superb historian can
offer. Tarling acknowledges the lease agreement,
not cession, between the Sulu Sultanate and
Overbeck-Dent duo and holds the position that
the Philippine government did not inherit the Sulu
Sultanates sovereignty over Sabah by virtue of
the 1885 Protocol. However, one could raise
objections to this. Echoing again Quintos and
Ongkilis propositions, Tarling states categorically
that: the alternatives [for the solution of the
dispute] would then be: the continuation of the
lease in perpetuity and the payment of rentcession-money of $5 300 p.a., with any arrears;
or its termination so as to leave Great Britain,
and thus Malaysia, in sovereign possession, with
the compensation to the heirs of the Sultanate
(p. 349).
Cyril Alliston in his work Threatened paradise:
North Borneo and its peoples (1966) has written
a short remark consisting only of three paragraphs,
disclosing his position that the Sultan of Sulu ceded
the territory to Baron Overbeck, Alfred Dent and
their heirs, associates, successors and assigns
their inheritors and beneficiaries which includes the
British crown in 1946, thereby legitimating the
claim of the successor-state, the Federation of
Malaysia.
Although barely touching on the dispute, James
Francis Warrens The North Borneo Chartered
Companys administration of the Bajau, 18781909: the Pacification of a Maritime, Nomadic
People (1971) may provide insights and details
on British policies regarding the claim and the Sulu

FERNANDEZ, E.S.

61

Sultanate. Concentrating on the companys first

thirty years, Warren analyzes colonial policies that
were used in the pacification of the Bajau, a
maritime nomadic people plying the seas of Sulu
archipelago.
A BIBLIOGRAPHY AND COMPILATIONS
Also valuable prior to the conduct of research
is the work of Graeme Powell Sabah: a
Bibliography of the Dispute between Malaysia
and the Philippines (1969), which contains
newspaper articles and other source materials
about the dispute before 1969.
One should also not exclude the hefty The
Philippine claim to a portion of North Borneo:
materials and documents (2003), an
indispensable volume intended for the use of
government officials, legislators, lawyers and
researchers. It contains pertinent documents that
in one way or another are related to the Philippine
claim to Sabah. This volume, an updated and
expanded edition of Readings on the Sabah
question (1987) was necessary in the light of recent
developments concerning the Philippine claim. In
2001, the Philippine government applied for
permission to intervene in the Case Concerning
Sovereignty over Pulau Ligitan and Pulau
Sipadan between Malaysia and Indonesia which
was being adjudicated at the International Court
of Justice (ICJ). The ICJ rejected, with one
member dissenting over the courts decision, the
Philippine application to intervene. Merlin
Magallona of the UP College of Law and
Undersecretary at the Department of Foreign
Affairs optimistically assessed the Philippine
participation in the said case as something of an
achievement for it allowed them to explain the side
of the Philippine claim to Sabah in the highest
international judicial body. The present volume
contains the Philippine application for permission
to intervene, the texts of the proceedings of the
application and the judgment of the ICJ.

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ASIA-PACIFIC SOCIAL SCIENCE REVIEW

CONCLUSION
This survey demonstrates the continuing
fascination of scholars, both Filipinos and foreign
nationals, with the Philippine claim to Sabah. Since
this is only an introduction to the works available
at the libraries accessed, it does not include other
pertinent sources for anyone who wants to
undertake an exhaustive study of the subject.12
Nonetheless, some important works have been
included and it is an exciting task for anybody to
explore other materials not cited in this
bibliographic essay.
NOTES
The Deed of 1878 refers to the agreement dated January
22 between the Sultan of Sulu, Jamal ul Azam and Baron
Gustavus von Overbeck leasing the sultans dominions
in North Borneo in exchange of five thousand Malaysian
dollars as annual rent with William Treacher, British
governor of Labuan, as witness.
2
This was Cesar Adib Majuls estimate in his book
Muslims in the Philippines (1999) in contrast to the 1704
date proposed by K.G.. Tregonning in his book Under
Chartered Company Rule (1958), later republished in
1965 as A History of Modern Sabah 1881-1946.
3
The North Borneo Cession Order of 1946 laid the basis
for the transfer of sovereignty and dominion from British
North Borneo Company to the British crown which stated
that with effect from the fifteenth day of July, 1946, to
the extent that the Crown should, as from that day have
full sovereign rights over, and title to, the territory of the
State of North Borneo and that said territory should
hereupon become part of her Majestys Dominions.
4
Latin phrase used in legal texts, which means out of
excessive caution.
5
The partial list of the documents are as follows: (1)
Letter of Earl of Derby to Lord Odo Russell denying
Spanish claim of sovereignty over Sulu, January 17, 1876;
(2) Protocol of Sulu 1877; (3) Letter of Acting Consul
General Treacher to the Earl of Derby dated January 2,
1878; (4) Contrato de Arrendo de Sandacan en Borneo,
con el Baron de Overbeck, January 4, 1878; (5)
Interpretation of the Moro Language of Mindanao
translation of the previous communications in Arabic
transcript of the contract which His Eminence, the Sultan
of Jolo executed with the Baron de Overbeck, January 4,
1878; (6) Translation by Professor Conklin of the Deed
of 1878 in Arabic characters found by Mr. Quintero in
Washington, D.C., January 22, 1878; (7) Copy of
1

VOL. 7 NO. 2
Commission from the Sultan of Sulu appointing Baron
de Overbeck Datu Bandahara and Rajah of Sandakan
obtained by Mr. Quintero in Washington, January 22,
1878; (8) Report of Acting Consul General W. H. Treacher
to the Earl of Derby, January 22, 1878; (9) Letter dated
July 4, 1878 from the Sultan of Sulu to the Governor
Captain General of the Philippines denying that Sandakan
was ceded to Overbeck; (10) Letter dated July 22, 1878
from the Sultan of Sulu to the Governor of Sulu stating
that he will cancel the lease of Sandakan; and 23 more
documents.
6
The booklet does not show the year of publication but
upon a close reading of the texts, it was no doubt
published in the seventies.
7
I am referring to the book Philippine Claim to North
Borneo Volume I (Manila: Bureau of Printing, 1963) as
mentioned in the preceding paragraphs.
8
These articles are the following as stated in the
preceding paragraphs: Lorenzo Sumulong, A Report on
Malaysia and on the Greater Malayan Confederation in
connection with the Philippine claim to Sovereignty to a
portion of North Borneo, Philippine International Law
Journal. 1962;2 (1-2) Bernabe Africa, The Legal Status
of the British Occupation of North Borneo, Philippine
International Law Journal. 1962: 2 (3) 388-409; Pacifico
Ortiz, Legal Aspects of the North Borneo Question
Philippine Studies. 1963: 11 (1): 18-64; and Republic of
the Philippines, Historical and Legal Bases of the
Philippine Claim, Philippine Claim to North Borneo
1964. Manila: Bureau of Printing.
9
K. G. Tregonning wrote: The question of whether it
was a cession or a perpetual lease (whatever that is)
seemed a stupid word game (1965: 245).
10
The same author cited the Manila Convention of 1885,
the Treaty of Paris of 1898 and US-UK Boundary
convention of 1930 and at the same time, noted the
acquiescence to these of the Philippine Constitution.
11
Here is the full text of the conclusion: It may be that
the Philippines has been flogging a dead horse and
Malaysia has been too hesitant to bury the carcass, while
Sabah has had to bear the stench. Since the grant is one
in perpetuity, it can either continue in force or, as the
only real alternative, the annual payment of $ 5 300 could
be compounded and paid in a lump sum. A settlement of
this nature should be done confidentially by diplomacy
and mutual trust. Once the compounded sum is agreed
upon by all parties concerned, a joint statement could
be made, the Sulu Sultans heirs duly compensated and
the Philippines and Malaysia could move on to more
natural political, social, economic and cultural
cooperation (1972: 25).
12
Some of these include: Colmenares, S. P. 1990.
Philippine territorial claims: problems and prospects.
Honolulu, Hawaii: Philippine Studies Colloquium Center
for Philippine Studies University of Hawaii at Manoa;

PHILIPPINE-MALAYSIA DISPUTE OVER SABAH

Sussman, G. 1983. Macapagal, the Sabah Claim and
Maphilindo: The politics of penetration. Journal of
Contemporary Asia. 13 (2): 210- 228; Jacobini, H. B. 1964.
Fundamentals of Philippine Policy toward Malaysia
Asian Survey. 4 (11): 1144-1151; Butwell, R. 1964.
Malaysia and Its Impact on the International Relations
of Southeast Asia Asian Survey. 4 (7): 940-946; Starner,
F.L.1963. Malaysia and the North Borneo Territories
Asian Survey. 3 (11): 519-534 among others.

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