Kota Kinabalu: The Philippines should set up a consulate in Sabah and abandon its territorial claim on the State following the collapse of the Sulu arbitration case, said former Chief Minister Datuk Seri Yong Teck Lee, Thursday.
Yong said the defeat of the US$14.9 billion Sulu arbitration claim against Malaysia in Paris and other European courts has eliminated the foundation for the Philippines’ claim to Sabah, which dates back to an 1878 agreement with the Sulu Sultanate.
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“Without the Sulu claim, the Philippines claim inevitably falls as it has absolutely no basis,” Yong said.
He called on the Philippine government to set up a consulate in Sabah to provide consular services for Filipino citizens in the State, describing this as a clear and definitive action to finally close the issue of the Philippines claim.
He said the finality of the European court decisions should convince Filipinos that their government’s claim to Sabah is futile.
“The Philippines people should be convinced that their government’s claim to Sabah is an exercise in absolute futility,” he said.
Yong urged both nations to focus on building good neighbourly relations, particularly between Sabah and the southern provinces of the Philippines.
He also called on the Malaysian Government to take note that the relevant historical document was the grant dated Dec 29, 1877, rather than the one dated Jan 22, 1878.
He said the 1877 document and other records prove that Sabah was never part of Sulu.
“It is now the responsibility of the Malaysian Government to pursue the setting up of a Philippines Consulate in Sabah,” he said.
