Duterte unlikely to discuss Sabah with Malaysian PM in meeting

President Rodrigo Duterte is unlikely to discuss the Philippines' Sabah claim during his meeting with Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir bin Mohamad this week, Malacañang said Sunday.

"Probably not," presidential spokesperson Harry Roque, Jr. said in a message to reporters.

Duterte arrived in Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia late Saturday night, ahead of the Pacquiao-Matthysse match and his bilateral meet with Mahathir.

Foreign Affairs Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano, National Security Adviser Hermogenes Esperon, Mindanao Development Authority Chairman Datu Abul Khayr Alonto, and Roque arrived at the Malaysian capital ahead of the President.

The Philippines currently claims ownership of Sabah, which is at present occupied by Malaysia. This is based on the title of the Sultan of Sulu who ceded proprietary rights over the 76,115-square-kilometer land to the Philippines in 1962.

The area originally belonged to the Sultan of Brunei, who then gave it to Sultan of Sulu Salah ud-Din Karamat Bakhtiar in 1658 as a reward for helping quell a rebellion.

In 1878, Sulu Sultan Jamalul Alam Kiram leased North Borneo (Sabah) to Hong Kong-based British North Borneo Co. of Baron Gustavos von Overbeck and Alfred Dent for 5,000 Malaysian dollars a year.

In 1946, Overbeck and Dent, without permission from the Sultan, transferred the territory to the British government when the company ceased operations.

On September 11, 1962, Sultan of Sulu Mohammad Esmail Kiram ceded to the Philippine government full sovereignty, title and dominion over the territory. President Diosdado Macapagal filed the Philippines' claim over Sabah with the United Nations.

In 1963, the British government, again without permission from the Sultan of Sulu, transferred Sabah to the newly formed Federation of Malaysia. — Jon Viktor D. Cabuenas/BM, GMA News