Kuala Lumpur: Law minister Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar has brushed off a Filipino senator’s call for his country to retake Sabah following the arbitration award to the Sulu sultan’s heirs at a European court, dismissing it as “just noise”.
Wan Junaidi said there was no need for the foreign ministry to summon the Filipino ambassador to Malaysia over the senator’s statement since the Philippines had yet to take a stand on the matter.
This comes after senator Francis Tolentino urged Philippine foreign secretary Enrique Manalo to stake its claim on Sabah following the arbitration award to descendants of the Sulu sultan in March.
Wan Junaidi told the Dewan Rakyat that Filipino politicians making such claims were just opportunists “taking advantage” of the matter.
“Such claims only crop up when they have no other political issues (to debate in the Philippine congress). Wisma Putra has been informed about these claims made by senators and politicians.
“In the event the Filipino government responds to their (politicians’) claims, then we would (summon their envoy),” he said in response to a supplementary question by Darrell Leiking (Warisan-Penampang).
Wan Junaidi maintained that the Sulu heirs’ latest attempt to seize the assets of Malaysian companies in the Netherlands was against international arbitration conventions.
He said another issue was inaccurate reporting by foreign media on the matter, adding that this might influence Putrajaya’s case in proceedings in Spain, France, and Luxembourg.
He also said a sub-committee within the government’s special task force on the Sulu heirs’ claim will be formed soon to engage foreign specialists to help tackle the issue.
The government, he said, was not at liberty to disclose its legal strategies publicly as it might thwart its case against the Sulu heirs in several jurisdictions.
