First Things First
By Francisco S. Tatad
Manila Standard Today
By Francisco S. Tatad
Manila Standard Today
In my last piece here, I suggested that to allay fears that the proposed Bangsamoro political entity would cost the Philippines its claim to Sabah, President Benigno Aquino III should solemnly declare that the government shall pursue that claim to the very end.
This has provoked some reactions, including one from my usual correspondent in Santiago, Chile, who pointed out that under the 1962 special power of attorney signed by the Sultan of Sulu in favor of the Philippine government, the document shall cease to have any further effect, and sovereignty over Sabah shall revert to the Sultanate if and when the government fails to assert its claim.
That is a valid observation. It will be necessary for the Philippine government and the Sultan of Sulu to declare that the special power of attorney is still in effect or that it has already expired. If still in effect, then the government must declare that it shall pursue the claim through every legal means possible to the very end.
If on the other hand it has lapsed, the nation must be informed that sovereignty over Sabah has reverted to the Sultan of Sulu, who shall be free to do with it as he pleases. Whether Aquino can afford to publicly say that is hard to imagine, but he will have to do it if, in fact, the transfer of sovereignty to the Philippines has been rescinded.
Should that happen, the nation would have paid very dearly for its inability to look after its highest interests. This is not to say that we have not paid enough already for it. The bitter conflict between Ferdinand Marcos and then-opposition Senator Benigno Aquino Jr. is a case in point.
The evidence tends to support the view that after Marcos came to power in 1965, he thought of recovering Sabah through a top-secret security project. However, the project was plagued by desertions and trainees were killed. Ninoy Aquino blasted Marcos for these in a Senate privilege speech. To avoid war with Malaysia, Marcos terminated the project.
After that, Marcos decided to pursue the claim by peaceful means. Taking off from where the 1963 Philippine-British talks in London ended, the Philippines and Malaysia met in Bangkok to discuss the claim in 1968. As a young reporter, I covered those talks. The Philippine panel was badly outgunned from the very start. In one session, the Philippines chief negotiator Gautier Biznar insisted that the two countries bring the case to the “WC.” His Malaysian counterpart, Ghazalie bin Shafie, assisted by the brilliant lawyer Ramani, instantly thundered “by all means!”
But when at the next session Biznar tried to pin down Ghazalie on the agreement, the latter became completely derisive. There was no such agreement, he said, the only agreement was to bring the case to the “WC”. Which meant “water closet,” the other word for toilet. He reminded Biznar that the official name of the World Court was International Court of Justice, or ICJ, not WC.
Another comical incident involved the production of documentary evidence to support the Philippine claim. The Philippine delegation had to dispatch Ambassador Eduardo Quintero back home to collect his papers and bring them to Bangkok. But no one had the slightest suspicion that Quintero had such fear of flying that he could only travel by boat—and it was such a slow boat.
When it became clear that there was no way of ending the talks on a positive note, Marcos summoned Ambassador Leon Ma. Guerrero from London to replace Biznar and collapse the talks with some flourish. Guerrero’s style and command of English was more than an adequate match for Ghazalie and Ramani, and won the Malaysians’ grudging respect. “A Marlon Brando come to the rescue,” said the Malaysian spokesman Patrick Keith.
In 1976, Marcos visited Sabah, after attending the burial of Malaysian Prime Minister Tun Abdul Razak, who had died in Kuala Lumpur. As information minister I accompanied him on that trip. The state capital was so thickly forested with the finest timber that one could hardly find a clearing to land a helicopter. The only eyesore was the chief minister’s mansion which was all cement, glass and metal, without any trace of wood.
Turning to me after surveying the forest, Marcos said, “sayang!”
Marcos remained convinced the only way to settle the conflict was through the World Court. But Malaysia opposed it, and it threatened the Association of Southeast Asian Nations’ taking off.
In 1977, at the Asean summit in Kuala Lumpur, Marcos announced that his government was ready to take steps to soften its stand on Sabah. In utter surprise, Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew said there was nothing left for him to do but to tear up his speech, since the world headline had already gone to Marcos.
Marcos, however, did nothing after that. It was only under Fidel V. Ramos that the claim was made to sleep. Aquino must now tell the nation whether it is merely asleep or dead.
fstatad@gmail.com
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