Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, July 27) — President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on Thursday said the territorial dispute over Sabah was not discussed at length during his meetings with top Malaysian leaders, as both Manila and Kuala Lumpur agreed to first tackle “solvable” issues.
He made the statement a day after separately meeting Malaysia’s King Al-Sultan Abdullah and Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim during his state visit there.
Marcos said while the Sabah issue couldn’t be avoided, it was mentioned only briefly during their talks.
\”Lagi namang mababanggit ‘yan eh,\” the president told the media hours before flying back to Manila. \”Hindi mo maiwasan, meron naman talaga tayong outstanding claim na hindi natin binabawi.\”
\”But what we– I mean, it’s clear to all the parties involved na hindi naman ma-dedecide ‘yan ngayon,\” he added.
[Translation: That will always be mentioned. It can’t be avoided, because we do have an outstanding claim that we are not withdrawing…But it’s clear to all parties involved that the issue can’t be decided on now.]
In March, Marcos said the two countries’ foreign affairs chiefs will meet over the matter.
However, in the latest media interview, he said since the long-standing dispute requires a \”much larger and much more involved\” discussion, both sides have chosen to talk about other things for now – including expanding cooperation on various areas such as trade.
\”The consensus is that we just talk about everything else…There’s a tacit agreement, at the very least, that we talk about all of the things that are solvable, all the issues that we can actually do, so when the time comes, perhaps we will come back to the issue. I’m sure it will come up again,\” Marcos said.
Years after being occupied by the Japanese and eventually becoming a British Crown Colony, Sabah became a state under Malaysia, which gained independence in 1963.
Manila insists that Sabah was merely on lease to Malaysia by the Sultanate of Sulu, which has ceded sovereignty over the area to the Philippines. The Sultanate signed a lease agreement in 1878 with the now defunct private firm British North Borneo Company over a part of Sabah, which Malaysia absorbed after the British colonizers left.
