If Sabah is Malaysia’s, why is it paying rent?

If Sabah is Malaysia’s, why is it paying rent? POSTSCRIPT By Federico D. Pascual Jr. (The Philippine Star) | Updated February 21, 2013 - 12:00am 216 1992 googleplus2 10 REGULAR RENT: The Sabah issue is clear and simple: If Malaysia is indeed the absolute owner of that corner of North Borneo which the constituents of the Sulu sultan insist on occupying as their ancestral home, why is Kuala Lumpur regularly paying rent to the sultanate? While we plain folk readily comprehend this point, Malacañang cannot seem to appreciate this ownership detail underlying the standoff between Malaysian police and Filipinos occupying the coastal village of Lahad Datu in Sabah. Kuala Lumpur had the foresight and cunning to broker — with the aid of British and American collaborators — the Bangsamoro sub-state deal of Malacañang with the rebel Moro Islamic Liberation Front. That adroit move is now paying off. See how President Aquino has been siding more with the Malaysian tenants than with the legal and historical Filipino owners of Sabah. * * * DORMANT ISSUE: Shifting focus to the safety of the Sulu sultan’s constituents, Malacañang is consulting behind the scenes with its Malaysian counterpart on how they can convince the Suluans in Sabah to agree to be evicted without incident. Opinion ( Article MRec ), pagematch: 1, sectionmatch: 1 We ache to hear Malacañang say that the Suluans’ safe repatriation will not be at the expense of the Philippine claim to Sabah. We want to catch even just a hint that the Aquino administration has not abandoned the claim to please Malaysia and its Western patrons. That the claim was initiated by a previous president (Diosdado Macapagal, the late father of Aquino’s hate-object Gloria Macapagal Arroyo) cannot justify Malacañang’s showing scant interest and dismissing it as a dormant issue.