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Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, August 31) – Foreign Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. maintained his position that despite aggressive financial offers, the Philippines will not abandon its territorial claim over Sabah, which Malaysia considers part of its territory.
Locsin posted a series of tweets on Sunday and Monday after Malaysia filed a diplomatic protest rejecting the Philippines’ territorial claims.
He said huge amounts of money have been offered for decades for the Philippines to withdraw its claims on Sabah, formerly known as North Borneo. She did not say this directly, but hinted that the offers came from Malaysia.
“The Filipino public should know that what is being offered is enormous, so the temptation to betray is enormous.” he wrote.
The top diplomat said offers have been made to presidential candidates, but the Philippines will not flinch.
“As a matter of history, there have been repeated offers to abandon our claim to Sabah by aspiring presidential candidates since the late 1970s, usually opposition because they are the ones most in need of campaign funds, but also administration. Not even it. dream, “he added. added.
Locsin said he will resurrect an old office within the DFA that deals with the country’s claim on Sabah.
“Leaving it in the hands of diplomats is not enough to safeguard the national interest in the matter. There is an additional temptation to feel welcome in the host country,” he tweeted.
The two regional allies have long kept the decades-long dispute on the back burner, but a tweet from Locsin, saying “Sabah is not in Malaysia,” recently sparked a public dispute. This led to Malaysian Foreign Minister Hishammuddin Hussein summoning Philippine envoy Charles José in July for the post, while Locsin also threatened to invite the envoy from the other country.
The Sabah dispute
Malaysia has regarded Sabah as its territory since it became part of the Malaysian federation in 1963. Kuala Lumpur maintains that the United Nations and the international community have recognized Sabah as part of Malaysia.
Manila, however, insists that Sabah was simply leased to Malaysia by the Sulu Sultanate, which has ceded sovereignty over the area to the Philippines.
The Sultanate signed a lease on January 22, 1878 with the now-defunct British North Borneo Company over a part of Sabah, which Malaysia absorbed after the British colonizers left. Malaysia has been paying what it considers to be transfer money of RM 5,300 a year to the heirs of the Sulu Sultante until it stopped payments in 2013.
The Philippines has never renounced its rights to Sabah and considers Malaysia’s payments to the Sultan’s heirs as income.
The two neighbors are founding members of the 10-country Association of Southeast Asian Nations, whose core principles include cooperation and peaceful dispute resolution. Malaysia has also negotiated peace negotiations for decades that resulted in the signing of a final agreement between the Philippine government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.
CNN Philippines’ Eimor Santos contributed to this report.
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