Thousands of years ago, what is now known as
the Philippines and what is known today as Borneo used to constitute a
single historical, cultural, economic unit. Authoritative Western
scientists have traced the land bridges that connected these two places.
The inhabitants of the Philippines and Borneo come from the same racial
stock, they have the same color, they have or used to have similar
customs and traditions. Borneo is only 18 miles away from us today.
North Borneo, formerly known as Sabah, was
originally ruled by the sultan of Brunei. In 1704, in gratitude for help
extended to him by the sultan of Sulu in suppressing a revolt, the
sultan of Brunei ceded North Borneo to the Sulu sultan.
Here, our claim really begins. Over the
years, the various European countries, including Britain, Spain and the
Netherlands, acknowledged the sultan of Sulu as the sovereign ruler of
North Borneo. They entered into various treaty arrangements with him.
In 1878, a keen Austrian adventurer, by the
name of Baron de Overbeck, having known that the sultan of Sulu was
facing a life-and-death struggle with the Spanish forces in the Sulu
Archipelago, went to Sulu, took advantage of the situation and persuaded
the sultan of Sulu to lease to him, in consideration of a yearly rental
of Malayan $5,000 (roughly equivalent to a meager US$1,600), the
territory now in question. The contract of lease—and I call it so on the
basis of British documents and records that cannot be disputed here or
abroad—contains a technical description of the territory in terms of
natural boundaries, thus:
“… all the territories and lands being
tributary to us on the mainland of the island of Borneo commencing from
the Pandassan River on the NW coast and extending along the whole east
coast as far as the Sibuco River in the south and comprising, among
others, the states of Peitan, Sugut, Bangaya, Labuk, Sandakan,
Kinabatangan, Muniang and all the other territories and states to the
southward thereof bordering on Darvel Bay and as far as the Sibuco River
with all the islands within three marine leagues of the coast.”
Contract to Dent
Overbeck later sold out all his rights
under the contract to Alfred Dent, an English merchant, who established a
provisional association and later a company, known as the British North
Borneo Company, which assumed all the rights and obligations under the
1878 contract. This company was awarded a Royal Charter in 1881. A
protest against the grant of the charter was lodged by the Spanish and
the Dutch governments and in reply, the British government clarified its
position and stated in unmistakable language that “sovereignty remains
with the sultan of Sulu” and that the company was merely an
administering authority.
In 1946, the British North Borneo Company
transferred all its rights and obligations to the British Crown. The
Crown, on July 10, 1946—just six days after Philippine
independence—asserted full sovereign rights over North Borneo, as of
that date. Shortly thereafter former American Governor General Francis
Burton Harrison, then special adviser to the Philippine government on
foreign affairs, denounced the cession order as a unilateral act in
violation of legal rights. In 1950, Congressman Macapagal—along with
Congressmen Arsenio Lacson and Arturo Tolentino—sponsored a resolution
urging the formal institution of the claim to North Borneo. Prolonged
studies were in the meanwhile undertaken and in 1962 the House of
Representatives, in rare unanimity, passed a resolution urging the
President of the Philippines to recover North Borneo consistent with
international law and procedure. Acting on this unanimous resolution and
having acquired all the rights and interests of the sultanate of Sulu,
the Republic of the Philippines, through the President, filed the claim
to North Borneo.
Basis of PH claim
Our claim is mainly based on the following
propositions: that Overbeck and Dent, not being sovereign entities nor
representing sovereign entities, could not and did not acquire dominion
and sovereignty over North Borneo; that on the basis of authoritative
British and Spanish documents, the British North Borneo Company, a
private trading concern to whom Dent transferred his rights, did not and
could not acquire dominion and sovereignty over North Borneo; that
their rights were as those indicated in the basic contract, namely, that
of a lessee and a mere delegate; that in accordance with established
precedents in international law, the assertion of sovereign rights by
the British Crown in 1946, in complete disregard of the contract of 1878
and their solemn commitments, did not and cannot produce legal results
in the form of a new tide. (Full text of Salonga’s and Sumulong’s speeches are available at Inquirer.net.)
No comments:
Post a Comment