After a month-long observance of Ramadan and pilgrimage to the Holy City of Mecca and Medica in Saudi Arabia, the emissary of the Sultanate of Sulu will return to Washington D.C. to hand carry the official letter request of Sultan Phugdalun Kiram.

The letter seeks the endorsement of the US government through  Secretary of State Marcos Rubio of the Sultanate’s 2004 Petition to the United Nations seeking $25-billon damage suit against Malaysia for the illegal annexation of Sabah despite an existing Carpenter-Kiram Treaty of 1915 which placed Mindanao, Sulu and Sabah under American protection.

Abraham Idjirani, secretary-general of the Sultanate of Sulu, on Monday told the DAILY TRIBUNE after an initial contact with the US Department of State last month, the emissary personally handcarried their Sultanate letter which was earlier emailed to US officials.

“The emissary is scheduled to meet US State Department officials for a possible audience with Secretary Rubio for the US endorsement of the petition,” he said.

Idjirani said the Department of Foreign Affairs will be furnished with the letter for their reference but the main objective is to invoke the 1915 Kiram-Carpenter agreement which was not rescinded by the US Congress and remains active up to this time.

The $25-billion damage against Malaysia is the estimated amount for the exploitation of Natural Resource after it was annexed by the British to the Federation despite the existing Carpenter-Kiram Treaty which placed Mindanao and Sulu, including Sabah, under US protection.

Proper forum

The request for endorsement is an offshoot to the reply of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) it will refer the  Petition of the Sultanate of Sulu to the United National General Assembly the proper forum to tackle the case once the US-China or the Philippines endorses the petition the ICJ  official declared on 20 June 2004.

“The filing of the Sulu Sultanate Petition in 2004 with the United Nations was to advance the vital interests, well-beings and general welfare of people both its constituents and people outside its ancestral realm including inhabitants of Sabah," he said.

Its basis, he added, laid on the fact that Malaysia became only an heir to the British leasehold rights obtained by the British North Borneo Company in 1878 upon the establishment of the Federation of Malaysia in 1963. The late Senator  Tolentino declared it in the UN as rights which were not those of a sovereign, but those of a leasee.

Sultanate of Sulu has invoked the 1915 Carpenter-Kiram treaty in seeking US endorsement in the $25-billion suit against Malaysia.

In an email sent through the US Embassy in Manila, the 35th Sulu Sultan and nine other Sultanate leaders asked President Donald Trump’s help in pursuing their case against Malaysia before the United Nations.

The email, coursed through the US Embassy in Manila, is seeking the endorsement of the United States Re: 2004 UN Petition of the Sulu Sultanate submitted to the United Nations for deliberation in the UN General Assembly.

Protector and benefactor

“With esteemed honor, the Bangsa Suluk People, the Ancestral Constituents of the Sultanate of Sulu and North Borneo, have always looked upon the United States of America as our protector and benefactor,” it said.

The Sultanate manifested that the treaty guaranteed their historical connections to the United States of America.

They are invoking the historic documents for reopening of the 2004 UN Petition submitted to the United Nations by his predecessor, Datu Raja Muda Agbimuddin Kiram, in that aforesaid year.