KOTA KINABALU: Manila has distanced itself from the arbitration claim against Malaysia by the self-proclaimed Sulu Sultanate heirs, saying it is a private matter.
Press Secretary Trixie Cruz-Angeles was quoted by the Philippine News Agency as saying that the proprietary claim by the heirs was "in the nature of a private claim".
Cruz-Angeles added on Tuesday (Aug 2) that the heirs' claim to Sabah could not be considered as a sovereignty or territorial issue "at the moment."
This comes after some of the heirs said they hoped that President Ferdinand Marcos Jr's stance on not abandoning the country's territories included Sabah.
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“From what I understand, the case is in the nature of a private claim by the heirs of the Sultan of Sulu with Malaysia,” she said at a press briefing at Malacañang Palace.
“Therefore, it is not an issue of sovereignty or of territory at the moment," she added.
Marcos Jr's recent statement about the country's territory, Cruz-Angeles explained, also still needs to be clarified.
“The President’s articulation of his statement about not giving up a square inch of territory will have to be reduced into writing and into specifics, after which, we will announce these to you if they are in any way related to the Sabah claim," she said.
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“At the moment, there is still no articulation, so we have to wait," she was quoted as saying by the newswire service of the Philippine government.
Marcos Jr, in his first State of the Nation Address on July 25, said his administration will not relinquish even a square inch of the country's territory although it was pursuing the “friend to all, enemy to none” stance.
The President, as the chief architect of the country's foreign policy, said the Philippines “will be a good neighbour” that will always look for “ways to collaborate and cooperate with the end goal of mutually beneficial outcomes.”
Following Marcos Jr’s speech, the self-styled Sulu sultanate heirs then expressed hope that he would also look at Sabah.
The heirs said they recalled that the then senator previously filed a resolution to press the country's claim over the Malaysian state.
The Madrid High Court had in June last year annulled Dr Gonzalo Stampa's appointment as an arbitrator and decided that all arbitration proceedings and any decision by the latter as invalid and could not be legally enforced.
However, without knowing the decision of the Madrid Court to cancel Stampa's appointment as an arbitrator, a French arbitration court went ahead with the Sulu descendants' case against Malaysia last September.
On Feb 28 this year, the Paris Arbitration Court awarded the Sulu heirs US$14.92bil (RM66.4bil) from Malaysia.
In July, Malaysia managed to obtain a stay order from a French superior court and is now working to overturn the decision.
However, despite the stay order, the heirs' London-based lawyers used the ruling under the New York Convention to seize the assets of two PETRONAS subsidiary companies in Luxembourg the same month.
It was reported that bailiffs in Luxembourg had seized Luxembourg-registered subsidiaries Petronas Azerbaijian (Shah Deniz) and Petronas South Caucasus on behalf of the Sulu claimants.
Stampa had moved the arbitration to Paris to grant the award, ruling that the 1878 treaty was a commercial "international private lease agreement".
However, former attorney general Tan Sri Tommy Thomas said the courts of Spain, France and Luxembourg should have not entertained claims made by the heirs because there is no arbitration clause in the 1878 agreement which Malaysia took over in 1963.
