Cagayan de Oro City — The newly created Mindanao and Sulu Unification Movement (MSUM) announced on Saturday that a bill had been submitted to the U.S. Congress, proposing that Philippine independence cover only Luzon and Visayas, leaving Mindanao and Sulu as a U.S. protectorate. This proposal, the group said, aligns with the provisions of the Carpenter-Kiram Treaty.

Abraham Idjirani, spokesperson for MSUM, told the Daily Tribune that the bill, formally titled Congress House Bill 12772 and also known as the “Beacon Bill,” urged both the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives to amend the Jones Law of 1914. The amendment sought to ensure that Mindanao and Sulu remained under American protection while deliberations over Philippine independence moved forward.

Idjirani explained that the bill, introduced by U.S. Senator Francis Beacon, was in response to the 1921 Sulu Petition and the 1924 Declaration of Rights and Purposes. The 29th Sultan of Sulu, Jamalul Kiram II, along with his leaders, had expressed their concerns, stating: “In the event the U.S. grants independence to the Philippine Islands without provision for our retention under the American flag, it is our firm intention and resolution to declare ourselves an independent constitutional monarchy known to the world as Moro Nation.”

The petition further emphasized that Congress must honor the U.S. promise of security and protection made during the surrender of the Sultanate’s arms to the U.S. Army under the Carpenter-Kiram Treaty. It stated: “The treaty has left us defenseless, and it is your duty to protect us or return to us the weapons you took from us, which we freely gave, relying on your promise.”

According to Idjirani, on 6 May 1926, Senator Beacon formally acted on the Sultanate's request by filing the Beacon Bill during the first session of the 69th U.S. Congress. This bill proposed that Luzon and Visayas be granted independence while Mindanao, Sulu, and Palawan remain under U.S. jurisdiction. However, the bill was archived after failing to garner enough support in the U.S. Senate, as Congress was preoccupied with defining the boundaries and territorial claims of an independent Philippines.

Before the incorporation of Mindanao, Sulu, and Palawan into the Philippines in 1935, Sultan Jamalul Kiram II had already submitted two significant petitions—the 1921 Sulu Petition and the 1924 Declaration of Rights and Purposes—to the U.S. government. These documents sought to ensure that the Sultanate would either remain under U.S. protection or be granted separate independence. However, the lack of response from the U.S. government indicated a breach of the Carpenter-Kiram Treaty.

The Carpenter-Kiram Treaty had placed the Sultanate under U.S. protection, but it also allowed Great Britain to gain political leverage over North Borneo (Sabah) under the guise of a protectorate agreement. By 1935, the U.S. had effectively stripped the Sultanate of sovereignty over its domains, including indigenous land rights, and ceded North Borneo to British control.

In 1920, the establishment of the Bureau of Non-Christian Tribes further eroded the Sultanate's political influence. This administrative shift was seen as a prelude to the eventual incorporation of the Mindanao-Sulu-Palawan region into the Philippines.

Amid growing concerns, Sultan Jamalul Kiram II and 57 Sulu leaders, including representatives of German and Japanese origins, signed the 1921 Sulu Petition. The petition declared: “The Sultanate of Sulu demanded to regard them as different from the rest of the people of the Philippines and grant them separate independence or retain them under American rule. It is the desire of the people throughout the Sultanate of Sulu that they be made permanent American territory.”

Quoting the petition, Idjirani said: “We, the people of Sulu, guarantee that we ourselves will maintain law and order in the event our territory is made part of the American Union. Above all, we feel assured that the American government in Washington will provide laws for our people, protecting our religion and our customs, and that under the protecting arm of America, we will have just courts wherein we will receive justice.”