Daily Tribune
The picture shows the direct descendants of Bai Mora Napsa Lagayan and the elders of her 12 siblings taken during their first reunion. Bai Mora Napsa was named one of the Principal and Rightful Heirs of Sultan Jamalul Kiram II in the 1939 Mackaskie Judgment. (Photo courtesy of Sultanate of Sulu)
Due to recent development in the Sulu Sultanate's $14.92 billion award of a French arbitration court over Sabah claim, the Office of the Solicitor General said they are updating the report they submitted to Malacañang.
This was the response of Solicitor General Menardo Guevarra when asked about new developments with regard to the arbitral award.
“We submitted our report to PBBM (President Bongbong Marcos) last year. We are continually updating it because of significant developments since the award in favor of the heirs of the Sultan of Sulu came out. Malaysia is turning the tables against the heirs,” said Guevarra.
The recent development Guevarra is mentioning is a ruling by a court in France handing Malaysia a “decisive victory” in a long-running dispute with the alleged heirs of a 19th-century sultanate who are seeking to seize state assets around the world to enforce a $14.9 billion arbitration award they won against the Southeast Asian nation.
The Paris Court of Appeal’s judgement in June 2023 found that the arbitral tribunal that heard the petition filed by the Filipino heirs of the last Sultan of Sulu — did not have jurisdiction over the case.
The judgement implied that the Paris Court of Appeal will also annul the $14.9 billion award handed down earlier.
The Filipino claimants had previously tried to seize three properties owned by the Malaysian government in Paris as well as assets of the Malaysian state oil firm Petronas in Luxembourg and the Netherlands.
The Malaysian side described the latest ruling as “final and binding” and said it was “a decisive victory in Malaysia’s ongoing pursuit of legal remedies, which Malaysia is confident will result in comprehensive defeat for the claimants and their funders”.
The claimants said they would consider their options before the French Supreme Court.
Earlier, Guevarra said the arbitral award in favor of the heirs of the sultanate of Sulu, has been completed and also made an assurance that the team he created to look into the international arbitral award in favor of the heirs of the Sultanate of Sulu is deeply studying the matter.
The team is studying legal and constitutional implications of the $14.92 billion award of a French arbitration court to the descendants of the last Sulu Sultan, Guevarra said.
Lawyers of the Sulu royal family have already served notice to seize $2 billion worth of assets of Malaysia abroad, including those of state-owned oil company Petronas, in line with the award.
