ANL  Mar-Apr  2013  Issue

E  D  I  T  O  R  I  A  L

Summer 2013 “heats up”!

NORMALLY, March ushers in the searing heat of summer. This year, the cool north-easterly breeze is still very much felt in most parts of the country second week of March as if to dampen the soaring political temper of the times.

Way before election proper May 2013, political machinations, realignments, party switching and transfer of residences-voting places were already the menu of the day. The first big plunge into the fray came when the floodgate of filing certificate of candidacy by  aspiring candidates for various position levels opened up October 5, 2012.

Came the campaign start February 12, 2013 for national and party-list posts  heightening further the political temperature to a feverish, free-for-all exchanges of less-pleasant compliments if not vicious “punches”.  Killings in the Ilocos in Luzon and Masbate province in the Visayas ensued western-style. “Team Patay” and “Team Buhay” of traditional politicians [“trapos”] steal the show with the smokin’ president, “Noynoy” Aquino, hugging the limelight as prominent endorser.., that is, for his liberal party candidates.

And while the politicians are salivating for higher grades in the surveys, our Muslim brothers in the Kiram family-led “Sultanate of Sulu” in Mindanao were in a “stand-off” with Malaysia on a territorial claim-dispute over Sabah, known then as “North Borneo”. The stand-off  turns tragic when fighting broke out March 1 in Lahad Datu town, Sabah where encamped men of the Royal Armed Force of Sulu led by one Rajah  Mudah  Agbimuddin Kiram engaged Malaysian troops in gun battle.

By March 8, the territorial dispute had escalated into a full-blown war when the Malaysian government launched for the first time an all-out attack and bombardments from air, land and sea unlike the calculated aerial bombings launched the past few days. Casualties at this point scaled up to less than a hundred reported to be mostly civilians from our Filipino Muslim brothers’ side.

Meanwhile, a “combative” P-Noy government turned its ire rather stupidly not to the Malaysian attackers but to its own nationals, the Sultanate of Sulu led by Supreme Datu Jamalul Kiram III, who for centuries now are laying claim to Sabah as Philippine territory.

“The timing was wrong,” P-Noy and his stooges say. “Matitigas ang ulo ng mga ito!” [“These people are hard headed!”], DILG Secretary Mar Roxas retorts angrily in an interview, referring to the Kiram Clan. “The Sabah stand-off is a conspiracy,” simply dismisses an annoyed president, Noynoy Aquino.

The P-Noy government, shameless and moronic at siding with and defending Malaysia, turns to dirty tricks by slamming the Sultanate of Sulu with so many technical and legal threats, going as far as echoing Malaysia’s demand for the claimants to “surrender unconditionally”.  P-Noy himself blindly dodges talking to the Sultanate’s leadership even after the latter had already offered the olive branch of peace in the form of a “unilateral ceasefire” in deference to a call for such by no less than the United Nations.

The “matuwid na daan” [“straight path”] must have gone crooked. As the midterm elections comes nearer, people are mulling which one [or more!] must be ousted through the ballot; not as yet through the barrel of the gun as our moro brothers out there are firmly holding on to.  --  editorial board

N  E  W  S  L  I  N  E

UP teen kills self over “forced leave” from school!

“SHE was killed by the system—a system that refuses to recognize that education is a right; that life is measured in your capacity to pay,” laments Regent Cleve Arguelles, student representative to the UP Board of Regents in reference to the shocking decision of University of the Philippines freshman, Kristel Tejada, 16, to cut short her life by committing suicide March 15 when she was forced to take a leave of absence from school due to her failure to pay her tuition fee on time.

What makes the UP teen’s taking her life more painful was that she was forced to the wall by that incomprehensible UP system’s policy of forcing out for leave a destitute student merely upon failure to pay tuition on time and giving not a remedial chance or reprieve but perdition as in the case of the young Kristel.

The UP coed’s fate spread like wild fire in the news shortly after her early Friday morning’s

suicide was picked up instantly by UP-Manila’s campus paper, Manila Collegian.  Enraged youth and students in many campuses in Metro-Manila and around the country spontaneously launched various forms of protests raging for over a week at its peak, some expressing indignation even as more exhibited anger by burning some old and dilapidated school chairs and tables.

Indeed, UP is a  “university of the people”  no more. It has gone elitist and commercial at par with the classy and exclusive schools around the country. In fact, UP lands on the top 5 with these elite institutions charging the most exorbitant tuition and other fees. In this, education in the Philippines is now clearly a privilege and not a right.

Even scholars in the UP system and other state colleges and universities have to shell out thousands of pesos for tuition alone. “Scholarship for sale!” chided an angry Polytechnic University of the Philippines student protester.  wena a. balino  

--o0o--

 April’s rage  [Reading 1]

ASINGAN. - Lenten season this year 2013 ended with the solemn observance of holy week on the latter part of March capped by Easter on the 31^st. But politicking by all-too-eager local “trapos” [traditional politicians] all over the country blazed the campaign trail  March 28, a Saturday, as per Comelec rules, or a day before Easter rather breaching the solemnity of the season.

ANL reporters were home for the holidays and to see for themselves the opening of local campaigning eager to feel the trends if not witness some changes in faces and  agenda of governance.

Same familiar faces are aiming for Asingan’s top posts: Heidee Chua, Eleanor Viray, and Benny Robeniol. Noticeable though is Viray’s women-laden slate—three, including her, which is a positive note. Women can best represent and serve their greater number; children’s rights & welfare; that of the elderly;  and a medical care program for all.

There were lack of in-depth, focused and comprehensive programs of development to be considered sustainable agenda of governance. ANL saw and heard only of generalized promises to serve the people. None of a holistic and coherent political primer was formulated by any one of the contesting parties for the eyes and judgement of the electorate.

Like say, on how to provide relief on the farmers’ burden on costs of production such as the exorbitant prices of fertilizers, pesticides and weedicides. How to do away with middlemen that bring down the prices of the farmers’ produce like rice and vegetables. How about a doable ecology program to help mitigate flooding and global warming? How about helping the farmers’ venture into organic farming for both cost and environmental considerations?

We do hope that our politicians—much more so for the upcoming victors—to go a notch or two higher than just being traditional politicians. We dream to see leaders to be technology oriented if not experts themselves; knows economics if not exactly good economists; appreciate biodiversity if not an outright environmentalists; honest and not corrupt; pro-people not thyself and his/her ilk.

If the motorcades on opening day of campaign were any indication, Heidee Chua’s can be said as huge, festive, and best organized to drum up admiration for her team. Can be that Chua is the incumbent and therefore has the advantage of machinery and coffers? Mere question.

Uy, pahabol! Habang papalapit ang halalan, dumarami ang sakitan-patayan!  Maikling tula para pampagaan: “Dun po sa amin, bayan ng Asingan, // uso ang black prop, atikabo ang tsismisan! // Ayon sa bubuwit na maasahan, // paldong “datung” nagkaka-abutan! // Kaluluwa’y ‘wag namang ibenta, // at sa impiyerno’y magningas ka! // Batu-bato sa langit, // ang tamaa’y mamimilipit!  –  “ ka bencio ”

* * *

Meanwhile, reports say that the gubernatorial toss-up in vote-rich Pangasinan continues to heat up in some comic twists.

Aside from a slew of legal charges they’ve slapped on each other  in previous months, the camps of incumbent governor Amado Espino and gubernatorial aspirant Hernani Braganza were locked in charming the support of the province’s political  bigwigs in a contest tagged as: “Who’s the better man”?

The Ramoses were split on who to raise hands and support for the gubernatorial post. Former Philippine president Fidel V. Ramos raised the hands of his nephew and Alaminos town mayor Hernani Braganza in full support to the latter’s  bid to challenge incumbent provincial governor Espino.

Oddly, mother and son tandem—former senator Leticia Ramos-Shahani and her son and re-electionist provincial board member Ranjit  R. Shahani—opt to side with third termer Governor Espino. Ranjit  was said to have failed in his bid to cap the vice-gubernatorial post vice Nani Braganza under the Liberal Party and some observers say that the Ramos-Shahani family allegedly resented this. Ranjit calls Espino “the better man”. --  engr. jlsevilla

--o0o--

April’s rage [Reading 2]

April ushered in a rather discomforting note here and around the globe in terms of both “temper” and “temperature”.

For one, the period March-April 2013 saw the world virtually holding breath waiting the tick of the clock if and when the two Koreas eventually come to nuclear blows with the United States openly supporting its lapdog South Korea by sending nuclear-armed battleships off the Korean peninsula.

And while the mighty imperialist USA is all over the globe waging wars of aggression against countries it cannot oblige to submit on their knees like Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia, Mali, Syria, Yemen, etc., violence and disasters continue to rock the US mainland as if to reinforce the omen of “karma”.

Boston marathon bomb blast on the background billowing a ball of white smoke.

The April 15 Boston marathon bombing; the April 18 Texas fertilizer factory massive explosion; the April 24 series of blasts on a natural gas barge in Alabama; and the cases of shootings in public places killing civilians mostly children, are raging incidents that claimed instantly so many precious lives and properties as if to drive an ominous message to the real “world-class” terrorist, war monger and aggressor, US of A.

Not to be outdone, mother nature somewhat made itself felt in a disastrous way with earthquakes at magnitudes ranging from 5.0 to 7.8 shaking Chile [5.0]; Indonesia [5.3]; Leeward Islands [5.3]; Portugal [5.9]; Philippines [5.3, 5.4 and 6.1]; Russia [6.2 and 5.3];  Japan [6.3, 7.2 and 5.5]; and Iran [7.8].

The deadly Iran quake occurred at the border with Pakistan likewise inflicting heavy

damages on the latter in terms of human casualties and properties down the rubbles. Over a thousand people was estimated by the US Geological Survey to have died in the disaster with tremors felt along the Persian Gulf states and eastward to Afghanistan, Pakistan and India.

This series of medium-to-major-magnitude “shockers” all occurred within the period of April 4 to 30; with the four countries of Russia, Portugal, Leeward Islands and Indonesia noticeably hit on the same day next to Japan’s third [and last] for April on the 29^th [5.5].  

Still on mother earth, likewise ominous as day itself is the evident global warming with the country’s unusual searing heat at 37 degrees Celsius recorded April 17 at Cabanatuan City in Central Luzon. For Metro-Manila, it was hottest at 36.6 April 19 felt at Quezon City. Half a dozen or so fatalities were reported due to heat stroke around the country.

In the midst of all these discomforting events, all is not well too for the days heading towards the May 13 midterm elections despite the Commission on Elections’ assurances of peaceful, honest and orderly elections.

As of end April, there are already about 3,000 violations of the gun ban imposed by government and over 60 election-related political killings since election period commenced January 13, 2013—specifically signalling nationwide campaigning for senators together with the imposition of the  gun ban provision. Local campaigning for governors down to municipal councillors started Saturday, March 28.

Ambushed and wounded Nunungan town Mayor Abdulmalik Manamparan

So similar and reminiscent of the November 2009 Maguindanao massacre of  58 people including 33 mediamen, 13 innocent victims were killed and 10 others wounded including the target person, Mayor Abdulmalik Manamparan of Nunungan town, Lanao Del Norte, when ambushed April 25 by gunmen in a mountain road near town riding a truck with supporters on his way home  from a campaign chore.

This is the most gruesome incident so far in the recent string of violent poll-related killings. “They took the lives of my daughter and granddaughter,” rues Mayor Manamparan referring to his closest loved ones riding with him and supporters on the waylaid truck.

Traditional politics in the Philippines is not at all funny. It’s pure and simple hazard!

Addendum: The recent testing the other day of PCOS machines to be used in next week’s midterm elections saw a disturbing failure when some of the poll count machines simply malfunctioned to the consternation of the public observers.

Moreover, these doubtful machines have yet to be supplied with “source codes” which is still under negotiation barely a week before “e-day” by and among the Central Bank of the Philippines [depository of the “source codes”]; Smartmatic [ company owner of the PCOS machines]; and Dominion [company owner of the “source codes”].

Without the “source codes”,  one can only pray for his/her totally unsecured sacred vote. Case of hoping against hope? Only in the Philippines!  --  editorial board

P  U  N  C  H  L  I  N  E

The “Tubbataha” Brouhaha: What’s the USS Guardian doing in there?

THE timeline in salvaging the 224-foot long minesweeper USS Guardian that ran aground January 17, 2013 on the country’s rich and pristine Tubbataha reef at Sulu Sea was initially set to be finished March 23. Some officials from both the Philippine Coast Guard and the US Navy who have seen daunting obstacles and problems expect the difficult job could drag on to April. And rightly so, a quarter-of-a-year belabouring on high seas tinkering on steels, machines, armaments and equipment in between battling harsh weather conditions.

Dragging on for months in extricating the ill-fated USS Guardian entailed not only cash expense on labour and materials but more so on the priceless damages the marooned ship inflicted on the reef and its surrounding in three-month’s time; plus the disturbances on the ecosystem that the prolonged salvaging operation had incurred.

The layman on the street can’t help but wonder on this Tubbataha brouhaha. What does a foreign warship doing on Philippine waters? Even worse, it’s right over a marine protected area, a national park and renowned world heritage site called “Tubbataha Reef” at the Sulu Sea!  Was it a case of “MacArthur returning back”?

Definitely, the Tubbataha reef area is not an international sea lane. It is well within the Philippine exclusive economic zone. In 1993, the UNESCO [United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization] declared the reef a World Heritage Site;  in 1999,

listed one of the world’s Wetlands of International Importance by the Ramsar Convention;  in 2008, nominated at the New 7 Wonders of the World—all because the reef area hosts and nurture an exceptional biodiversity of fish and coral species with 600 and 360 respectively; bird with 100; dolphin and whale with 13; shark with 11; and a number of turtle species nesting and laying their eggs within the ecosystem. Moreover, the area is a sustainable fishing ground for locals and is guarded by armed “reef rangers”.

Back to the crux of the matter. What the heck is a foreign warship doing over the reef area? Is it not a clear breach of sovereignty of one’s territorial waters for one with no clear purpose and permitted entry? Initial reports suggest it was sort of an R & R for the sailors manning the ship. A rare venture, indeed!

Why the navy officials on board refused a “check” or “search” of the ship by reef rangers guarding the area owned by a sovereign nation that is the Philippines?  Or was it a “bullying tactic” and/or “self-imposed special treatment” on the part of the Americans knowing that we have in our midst a distinctly insensitive and lame-duck president with an impaired knowledge on what’s going on around here?

Meanwhile, some sources say that there is an ongoing “courtship” by and between the governments of the Philippines and the United States of America as to the resurrection of the latter’s basing rights that was abrogated 22 years ago.

And who is courting whom?

Could be that the “feeling is mutual”? The former is seeking the protection of Uncle Sam against an aggressive China while the latter is seeking to refocus its strength and power into Asia and the Pacific to balance the “interest equation” thereat.

It’s  kinda  “scratch your back, lick my ass” relation!  --  rdantonio

--o0o--

Solving the Sabah stand off, anyone?

[Here’s a clever yet diplomatic manner of solving the Sabah problem on a co-equal term with recalcitrant Malaysia. This is lifted from a post by a good friend Rey Mendoza, a “philantrophic writer” we alternately call in the moniker “Marx” or “Pandak” way back university days. This savvy  suggestion was posted at the height of Malaysia’s armed campaign against the Sulu Royal Army sometime March 2013.] –editor

THE things P-Noy can do to solve the Sabah problem besides asking the Sulu Royal Army to surrender while threatening them with harsh legal action: [1] Ask Malaysia to abide by the United Nation’s prescription for a peaceful solution to the strife in Sabah. [2] Recover dead Filipinos, give them decent burials. [3] Tell Malaysia that it’s his sworn duty as Philippine president to enforce Philippine laws on Sabah (R.A. 5446) and ensure the safety and wellbeing of all Filipinos anywhere in the world. [4] Insist on humane treatment of Filipino civilians in Sabah and provide immediate relief and shelter to Sabah refugees in Tawi-Tawi and elsewhere. [5] Force Malaysia to the negotiating table at the risk of severing diplomatic and trade relations (RP has done this twice before). [6] Ask ASEAN to intervene in the strife. [7] Suspend and review the Framework Agreement with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front. [8] Expel Malaysian observers and peace monitors in Mindanao. [9] Call the Sultan of Sulu directly and thresh out a solution to the Sabah claim. [10] Worse coming to worst, expel the Malaysian ambassador and reduce diplomatic relations to the consular level.

If we may add: Pray to Allah that the Malaysian prime minister will lose the confidence of the appointing authority, His Majesty’s Yang di-Pertuan Agong, kick Prime Minister Mohd Najib Abdul Razak out of office re: his poor, undiplomatic and harsh tackling of the Sabah issue, and be replaced with a more pragmatic leader.  At the home front, we may also pray that the “Team P-Noy” and all the traditional politicians running this May 2013 midterm polls shall go down the gutter of defeat.

We caution, but not necessarily restrain, the Sultanate of Sulu in waging a protracted guerrilla warfare to take back Sabah. Allahu Akbar! 

F  E  A  T  U  R  E

To whom does Sabah belong? [Sabah Reading 1]

By:  Vidal Yudin Weil***

February 22, 2013 [FMT news]

IF there really was an incursion, how come I do not see our Foreign Minister flying off to the              Philippines or their Foreign Secretary here in Sabah to negotiate the retreat?  vidal yudin weil

 I was asked to pen my views on the alleged ongoing standoff between the Malaysian armed forces and the so-called Sulu intruders at a Lahad Datu village in Sabah.

I will touch on the history of Sabah followed by my arrival to the conclusion on the probability of the incident actually happening in reality.

North Borneo

It was written that on Jan 23, 1878, the Ruler of Sulu, Sultan Jamalul Alam leased Sabah [known then as North Borneo] to Gustavus Von Overbeck for an annual rent of equivalent 5,000 dollars through Von Overbeck’s trading partner Alfred Dent. It was also recorded that this amount of money (USD1,500 per year) is still being paid to the heirs of the Sulu Sultan by the Malaysian Embassy in the Philippines until today.

The keyword in the written agreement was “Pajak” which if translated literally means “Lease”. It was also explicitly written that the rights to Sabah cannot be transferred to any other nation or anyone else without the Sulu Sultan’s express consent.

The Spaniards in Manila eventually took control of the entire Sulu Sultanate; and in 1885, Great Britain, Germany, and Spain signed the Madrid Protocol confirming Spanish influence over everything in the Philippines except Sabah which belongs to the Sultanate.

Great Britain was reminded by America in official black and white in 1906 and 1920 that Sabah does not belong to Great Britain; and was and is at all material times legally and legitimately part and parcel of the Sulu Sultanate.

The British government, however as we all know, arrogantly and unilaterally did turn Sabah into a Crown-leased Colony on July 10, 1946 even though there was a declaration by Chief Justice CFC Makaskie of the High Court of North Borneo on Dec 19, 1939 in a civil suit filed by Dayang Dayang Hadji Piandao and 8 other heirs of the Sulu Sultan including Putlih Tarhata Kiram that the successor of the Sulu Sultan in the territory of Sabah was Punjungan Kiram and not Great Britain!

Earlier on in 1941 the Constitution of the Philippines states specifically that the national territory of the Philippines includes “all other areas which belong to the Philippines on the basis of historical rights or legal claims” which means that the Philippines have never relinquished their claim on Sabah.

Even before Sabah joined Malaya, Sarawak, and Singapore to form Malaysia on Sept 16, 1963, numerous delegations were sent by the Philippines to London reminding the British government that Sabah belongs to the Philippines.

On Sept 12, 1962, the territory of Sabah and the full sovereignty, title and dominion over the territory were ceded by the then reigning Sulu Ruler, Sultan Muhammad Esmail E. Kiram 1 to the Republic of the Philippines during the Presidency of Diosdado Macapagal.

The cession effectively gave the Philippines government full authority to pursue their claim in the International Court of Justice at The Hague. But until today, Malaysia continues to consistently reject the Philippines’s calls to refer the matter to the ICJ.

Immediately preceding the formation of Malaysia, two commissions of enquiry visited Sabah and Sarawak in order to establish the state of public opinion regarding merger with Malaya and Singapore. However, the commissions were never mandated to address the legal status of Sabah nor were they referendums in the proper sense.

The first commission known as the Cobbold Commission was established by the Malayan and British governments and was headed by Lord Cobbold, along with two representatives from Malaya and Britain – but none from the territories under investigation.

The Commission found that about one third of the population of each territory i.e. Sabah and Sarawak strongly favours early realisation of Malaysia without too much concern over terms and conditions. Another third, many of them favourable to the Malaysia project, ask, with varying degrees of emphasis, for conditions and safeguards. The remaining third is divided between those who insist upon independence before Malaysia is considered and those who would strongly prefer to see British rule continue for some years to come.

Indonesia and the Philippines rejected the findings of the Cobbold Commission and in 1963, a tripartite meeting was held in Manila between Indonesian President Soekarno, Philippines President Diosdado Macapagal and Malayan Prime Minister Tunku Abdul Rahman. The meeting agreed to petition the UN to send another commission of enquiry and the Philippines and Indonesia agreed to drop their objection to the formation of Malaysia if the new commission found popular opinion in the territories in favour.

The UN Mission to Borneo found “a sizeable majority of the people” dubiously in favour of joining Malaysia and as expected Indonesia and the Philippines subsequently rejected the report’s findings and Indonesia continued its semi-military policy of “konfrontasi” towards Malaysia – the disputed report in effect sealed the creation of Malaysia.

The whole situation in a nutshell

To give the ordinary layman on the street an easier picture to digest, the following analogy best describes the whole situation:

A landlord called Jamalul leased a piece of land to a tenant called Overbeck for a yearly rent of $5,000. The written agreement stated that Overbeck cannot sub-let the land or sell the lease without Jamalul’s permission.

But the tenant despite the prohibition illegally sold the lease to a sub-tenant called Great Britain who later also illegally sold the lease to a sub-sub-tenant called Malaysia.

And in between all the illegal transactions perpetrated by Overbeck, Great Britain and Malaysia, Jamalul transferred all his rights and interests to a new landlord called the Philippines. The new landlord now wants back the land but the sub-sub-tenant Malaysia refuses to leave. The new landlord wants to take the matter to the International Court of Justice at The Hague but the sub-sub-tenant Malaysia also refuses to go there.

Can the sub-sub-tenant Malaysia claim to be an innocent victim when she took over the lease from the sub-tenant Great Britain?

In my humble opinion: the law be it either international or of any civilized country is that if a purchaser acquires a property with prior knowledge that the property in question is in fact stolen or that the seller does not have a legal or legitimate title to the property at the time of transaction is equally guilty of the crime of theft. Such transaction is not only null and void and of no effect, the title to the property in question is still vested with the original owner.

The ICJ only handles cases between states and nations which must agree to come voluntarily to be adjudged and be bound by its decisions; I strongly believe that Malaysia dares not go to the International Court of Justice to face the Philippines because the former foresee the high possibility of losing.

For centuries Great Britain was the cause of a lot of world problems today, history will tell you the sufferings of people in the Middle East, Africa, Indian Sub-Continent, Argentine Falklands and many more. Even within the United Kingdom, the Scottish, Welsh, and Irish people are really pissed with England.

Hong Kong was fortunate when the late Deng Xiao Ping told Margaret Thatcher in private that if Great Britain does not leave Hong Kong after squatting there for more than 150 years, the Chinese Army will overrun Hong Kong in one day. She was eventually returned to China on July 1, 1997 and now enjoyed autonomy.

What about the voices of the population during the times of the first tenant Overbeck and sub-tenant Great Britain who agree to let the sub-sub-tenant Malaysia take over?

Let me give another analogy: I am the registered legal and legitimate owner of a bus. One day someone leased the bus from me and drove around town picking up and dropping off passengers along the way for profit. Let us say that the passengers love his driving so much that they want to patronize him for life. Does that in any way mean he can sell my bus or treat the same as his property?

To answer my earlier question: the passengers can choose to ride whichever bus they want to, but the sovereignty of Sabah is vested in the Philippines. And this also means that even if the people of Sabah today might still want to stay on with Malaysia, Sabah is still the legal and legitimate territory of the Philippines under international law if the same principles are applied as per the Judgments of the International Court of Justice with regards to the cases of Sipadan and Ligitan Islands, and Pulau Batu Puteh or Pedra Branca.

The Sultanate of Sulu had ceased to exist when every inch of its territory was ceded on Sept 12, 1962 to the government of the Philippines and as the successor-in-title of the defunct sultanate, it is entitled to reclaim Sabah which is at all material times rightfully theirs.

Article IV of the Malaysia Agreement of 1963* reads as follows:

The Government of the United Kingdom will take such steps as may be appropriate and available to them to secure the enactment by the Parliament of the United Kingdom of an Act providing for the relinquishment, as from Malaysia Day, of Her Britannic Majesty’s sovereignty and jurisdiction in respect of North Borneo, Sarawak and Singapore so that the said sovereignty and jurisdiction shall on such relinquishment vest in accordance with this Agreement and the constitutional instruments annexed to this Agreement.

Because it was stated that one part of Sabah** belonged to the Brunei Sultanate and the other part to the Sulu Sultanate, and while Brunei had ceded her part of Sabah’s sovereignty, Sulu (now part of the Philippines) only leased her part of Sabah, does Her Britannic Majesty had sovereignty over the whole or only one part of Sabah?

It is obvious that the answer is only one part of Sabah, therefore Article IV is null and void thereby rendering the entire Malaysia Agreement of 1963 illegal and of no effect…!

There is a legal maxim “nemodat quod non habet” which means “you cannot give what you do not have”.

Legitimate and legal independence or autonomy for that one part of Sabah that was leased from the Sulu Sultanate can only come from the Philippines.

Lahad Datu

It is now more than two weeks since the alleged intrusion took place and not even one piece of credible picture taken of the invaders was shown to the public.

Common sense tells me that if the occurrence was real, the only reason our security forces dare not open fire on the raiders is either our boys are outnumbered or their guns outsized.

If there really was an incursion, how come I do not see our Foreign Minister flying off to the Philippines or their Foreign Secretary here in Sabah to negotiate the retreat?

Like the May 13 bogeyman that was used to frighten the Chinese voters of Peninsular, this could well be another “sandiwara” to scare the voters of Sabah and show us that only the Barisan Nasional will be able to protect us from foreign invasion.  [***The writer is a Malaysian and a former member of Sabah’s faded tourism industry].

--o0o--

Ghosts from the past  [Sabah Reading 2]

FROM A DISTANCE.  By: Carmen N. Pedrosa [The Philippine Star] | Updated March 3, 2013 - 12:00am

THE Philippine claim to Sabah was the stuff of headlines in the early ’60s. Brilliant minds in the Senate, Senators Lorenzo Sumulong and Jovito Salonga, discussed the issue through well-thought out speeches.

I was a young reporter then absolutely thrilled to cover conferences and proceedings in Congress about the issue. The moving spirit behind the reconciliation of Philippines, Malaysia and Indonesia was the late President Diosdado Macapagal.

His diplomatic efforts to bring the three essentially Malay peoples paid off and thus was born Maphilindo — Malaya, Philippines and Indonesia. This later became SEATO and on to the present ASEAN.

“How to settle the Sabah claim of the Philippines through peaceful means was one of the items in the Tokyo Maphilindo Summit of June 1964, which I attended as Legal Adviser to President Macapagal.

“It was agreed that the Sabah claim would be settled by peaceful means, but the ‘verbal understanding’ between the then Prime Minister of Malaysia Tunku Abdul Rahman and Macapagal regarding the elevation of the case to the International Court of Justice, was denied later by Malaysia,” writes Salonga.

In time, the denial of agreement by word of honor would return to haunt the peoples for whose sake the promise was made. One’s word of honor remains a binding commitment as far as Oriental culture is concerned. Promises when made through one’s word of honor, might have been supplanted by legal documents and lawyers’ briefs in the Western world but it remains deeply embedded in Oriental culture. These are not forgotten.

Opinion ( Article MRec ), pagematch: 1, sectionmatch: 1

I venture to say that is behind the resentment of the Sultan Kiram and his heirs. Who can blame them if having been abandoned by their government, they should decide to go it alone? President Aquino calls it a “dormant” claim because no other administration after President Macapagal would bravely and openly take up the issue [including him!].

Except for President Marcos’ ill-fated attempt to seize the territory by stealth and force.

*   *   *

For a more comprehensive report on the Sabah claim please refer to Senator Jovito Salonga’s point by point reply to Senator Sumulong’s speech. It is now being circulated in Facebook.

“Sumulong’s statements to the press in London were seized upon by the English press with great delight, as if to show to the Philippine panel how well-informed the Senator was,” writes Salonga.

*   *   *

Here is the claim.

“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, Kina-batangan, 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 3 marine leagues of the coast.”

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 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.

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.”

L  I  T  E  R  A  R  Y

On WOMEN:  08 March 2013, International Women’s Day!

“We  hold  half  the  sky.  Today,  we  will  hold  all  the streets!
STRIKE!  DANCE!  RISE!  IT’S OUR TIME TO FIGHT!”

The Woman I Love
By: Roland Simbulan

I love a woman
Who fights for other women
To liberate them from oppression
And gender inequality.

I love a woman
Who fights for the empowerment
Of the forsaken working people
Who toil on our land and factories.

I love a woman
Whose conviction is
Like a flame in her heart
Of passion and zest for life.

Oh, I love a woman
Who will not just be a mother
But Mother
To the future we are building.

MABUHAY  ANG  LAHAT  NG  KABABAIHAN!

--o0o--

On BEES:  Their Vital Importance to Man and the Ecological Balance

Did you know that Bees help pollinate 80% of flowers and plants that help the world’s  crops  thrive?  In 15 years, their number has decreased from 50% to 90% worldwide.

    

--o0o--

On ELECTIONS:  The sickening imbalance!

E  D I T O R I A L     B  O A R D

MEMBERS:  Rudy D. Antonio [Canada Correspondent];  Engr. Silver Casilla  &  RN Merly Grospe-Mayo [U.S. Correspondents];  Ronilo R. Corpuz [Vienna Correspondent];  Fely Dumaguing-Malgapo [Milan Correspondent];  Engr. Joe  L. Sevilla [Asingan Correspondent];  Col. Lalin Layos-Pascual;  Ross C. Diaz;  Engr. Lorie  dG.  Estrada;  CPA Rod A. Layco;  Wena Agaton-Balino [Photo & Lay-out Artist];  Ruben “Bencio” Balino [ Editor-In-Chief].