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MANILA, Philippines -- Foreign Affairs Secretary Alberto Romulo on Friday was tight-lipped on the report that the nine heirs of the sultan of Sulu have dropped their claim on Sabah.
At the 110th anniversary celebration of the Department of Foreign Affairs, Romulo did not even want to consider the issue, which lay dormant until a Malaysian daily reported Thursday that the heirs to the Sulu Sultanate have dropped their claim on the northern-tip of Borneo.
But other diplomats, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the truth about the report must be ascertained first.
"We sure have a contingency plan in such instances," said one diplomat, but did not elaborate.
The report on Malaysia?s The Star was dismissed Thursday as untrue by both Sultan Ismael Kiram II and Rajah Muda Agbimuddin Kiram and a lawyer representing the heirs and administrators of the former Sultanate of Sulu.
Another Filipino diplomat said the heirs, who continue to receive some form of lease money from the Malaysian government, have already ceded to the Philippine government their claim to the state, and this reported action by the heirs will have no bearing on the Philippine claim.
Manila?s sovereign claim over Sabah has been a major stumbling block in the resolution of the issue of illegal migrants on the island, a migrant labor leader has said.
Malaysia plans to deport 150,000 mostly Filipino and Indonesian illegal migrants from Borneo island in a massive operation to begin in August.
Democratic Action Party adviser Lim Kit Siang has said the presence of illegal Filipino migrants in Sabah ?challenges the question of the sovereignty of Malaysia in Sabah and there is a disturbing implication in terms of long-term consequences because of the subsisting claim of the land in Sabah by the Filipinos."
A Philippine claim for sovereignty over Sabah has laid dormant for decades in the international courts.
