Philippine Claim Is Based On An Older Claim

The Philippine claim to the territory of North Borneo, or as it is now called, Sabah, is not of recent origin. Rather it is based on an older claim to the area by the Sultans of Sulu. But the Sulu claim itself is suspect.

A look at the background of the status of North Borneo is therefore essential to understanding the nature of the dispute.

Alfred Dent was the son of Thomas Dent of Dent and Company, the great commercial house of Hong kong and had himself been connected with the firm in Hong kong for years before removing to London.

Austrian Baron Gustav von Overbeck had served as Austrian Consul in Hong kong.

In January I878 Sultan Mohammed Jamalul Alam, granted a portion of North Borneo, which he claimed, to an international syndicate headed by Dent and Overbeck.

A few weeks before this grant was made, in December I877, the Sultan of Brunei had ceded North Borneo, including the whole of the area claimed by Sulu, to von Overbeck and Dent.

Although recognized as sovereign over the Sulu Archipelago it is not at all certain that the Sulu Sultans held sovereignty over any part of North Borneo.

What is clear is that they never held de facto control there. Until I878, power along the coast of Northeast Borneo was in the hands of pirates, mainly the Illanun and Balagnini but including some Sulus. Because of the problems with piracy and attacks on coastal villages, most natives moved far inland, up the rivers or across the mountain ranges for safety.

It is the nature of the grant of territory and the use of the word "pajak" in the agreement signed between Dent and Overbeck and the Sultan of Sulu that was the basis of contention even till today as a basis of the present Philippine claim on Sabah.

The matter goes back to the translation of "cede" and "lease" which, at the time, was done via interpreters who may have not used the correct terms when helping to pen and translate the agreements. What is obvious is, in the minds of Dent and Overbeck and to the British Government later in the late 1800s, the Sultans of Sulu and Brunei had both ceeded control over North Borneo to the North Borneo Company.

The Sulu's did not make any claims over North Borneo till 1939, so over 50 years had passed before the Sulu's decided to make a claim for North Borneo under the ancestors who came afterwards.

But, they also chose to ignore two subsequent agreements signed in the late 1800s between Spain and Britain and then the Madrid Protocol which the Sultan of Sulu signed and re-affirmed that he had indeed ceeded North Borneo and a number of islands to the British. This was clearly written in this agreement. This is the basis for which the Philippine government have chosen to ignore (deliberately) the agreement signed that re-confirmed there was no more confusion as to who owned North Borneo.

When von Overbeck arrived in Sandakan in I878, the first villages were found sixty miles up the rivers (Telupid). Those few communities which remained along the coast were primarily supply bases for the pirate fleets.

The northwest coast from Marudu Bay to Brunei town was relatively free from pirate raids after the destruction of the Illanun fortified town of Tempasuk in I869 by British gunboats.

Chiefs of this coast looked to Brunei in a vague way as overlord. Several rivers on this coast were under the control of independent local chiefs or datos who, when convenient, recognized the Sultan of Brunei as their leader, and they, as his vassals.

As in 1877, the Brunei Sultanate then still believed and maintained that the territory of North Borneo was in fact still under the control of the Brunei Sultanate.

Baron de Overbeck was appointed as the Maharaja Sabah, Rajah Gaya and Sandakan in a treaty which was signed by Sultan Abdul Momin of Brunei on 29 December 1877.

Baron de Overbeck was also appointed as Dato Bendahara and Raja Sandakan in a second treaty signed by Sultan Jamalalulazam of Sulu appointing Baron de Overbeck on 22 January 1878.

Dent bought out von Overbeck and organized the British North Borneo Company. Under a charter from the British crown, the company administered North Borneo until 1946 when it became a crown colony.