CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY — A new “separatist group” will include the disputed territory of Sabah in their quest for the independence of Mindanao, which they claimed was an abandoned protectorate of the United States and annexed to the Philippines in 1935.

Former energy undersecretary Benito Ranque, lead convenor of the Mindanao and Sabah Alliance, or MASADA, told the Daily Tribune that Sabah and North Borneo were annexed by Malaysian Federation in 1963 despite being a part of the Sultanate of Sulu.

He said that although Sabah was included in the 1972 Constitution as part of Philippine territory, the 1987 Constitution removed it.

“Sabah will be part of the new independent state of Mindanao,” he said.

He insisted that Mindanao and Sulu were an independent protectorate of the United States that were occupied through conquest or an act of war and was not included in the territory ceded by Spain through the 1898 Treaty of Paris and the Declaration of Independence in the same year.