There is no timeline for the registration of about half a million “stateless” people of Filipino ethnicity in Sabah, a Department of Foreign Affairs official said Thursday.

In a message to DAILY TRIBUNE, DFA Undersecretary Eduardo de Vega said the ongoing registration of stateless Filipinos in Sabah has no timeline, stressing that it would take years to be completed.

“It is an ongoing project that will take years. We do not have a permanent office in Sabah, De Vega said. He noted that there are about 770,000 Filipinos in Sabah, of whom some 550,000 are classified as undocumented.

De Vega said it is not the lack of interest of Filipinos in Sabah that prevents them from registering their births, but the lack of identification documents.

“Once they register, they will be entitled to all the services available to Filipino citizens, including help with local legal issues,” he said.

At the moment, non-Malaysian residents of Sabah have no access to the services offered by the Malaysian government on the island such as healthcare and education.

Sabah, which is located south of the Philippines, is claimed both by the heirs of the Sultanate of Sulu and Malaysia.

The claim of the heirs of the Sultanate of Sulu over Sabah were validated in the decision of the Paris Arbitration Court in 2022. However, the court decision was overturned the following year.

The French arbitration court had previously required the government of Malaysia to pay $14.92 billion to the heirs of the Sultanate of Sulu.

Despite the overlapping claims over Sabah, the governments of the Philippines and Malaysia continue to preserve a warm relationship.

In July last year, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said the issue of Sabah came up during his state visit to Malaysia. He added, however, that it was not extensively discussed.

The DFA last year said there were eight Filipinos on death row in Malaysia on rebellion charges in relation to the King Lahad Datu standoff in 2013.

The eight Filipinos were charged with rebellion after the deadly standoff, when the so-called Royal Security Forces of the Sultanate of Sulu and North Borneo attempted to overthrow the government of Malaysia in Sabah.