Luxembourg court sets aside Sulu heirs’ attachment order to enforce US$15b claim against Malaysia ICHRP lauds ICC decision to pursue investigation of Duterte

Continued from page 1 Continued from page 1 International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines welcomed this new development.

“The ICHRP congratulates the ICC for cutting through the fog of lies and false claims laid out by the Marcos-Duterte government that the Philippine judicial system is functioning and can address any concerns about the President, the regime and the military’s roles in these gross violations of human rights and crimes against humanity,” it said.

On January 26, the ICC announced that it had granted the Prosecutor’s request to resume investigation into the “Situation of the Republic of the Philippines.” The ICC indicated that “following a careful analysis of the materials provided by the Philippines, the Chamber is not satisfied that the Philippines is undertaking relevant investigations that would warrant a deferral of the Court’s investigations”.

Having examined the submissions and materials of the Philippine Government, and of the ICC Prosecutor, as well as the victims’ observations, the Chamber concluded that the various domestic initiatives and proceedings, assessed collectively, do not amount to tangible, concrete and progressive investigative steps in a way that would sufficiently mirror the Court’s investigation.

This conclusion of the ICC mirrors the earlier findings of the Investigate Philippine Commission of

Inquiry which found that domestic measures were effectively not functioning, and there was no evidence to support the Philippine government’s contention that victims could find justice in the Philippine courts. The judicial system itself was in fact being wielded as an instrument in the Philippine government’s campaign of state terror.

The ICC decision to continue the pursuit of justice lays bare the Marcos Administration’s culpability in shielding the Duterte regime’s policies of impunity and state terror that killed perhaps 30,000 or more, and victimized Filipinos for six long years, according to Peter Murphy, ICHRP Chairperson.

“We are extremely appreciative of the decision of the ICC. It offers a mechanism for victims to continue their pursuit of justice against the Duterte Regime’s brutal war on drugs, on dissent and on the Moro and all indigenous peoples. Justice will still be served despite the Marcos administration’s decision to keep the Philippines outside the jurisdiction of the ICC and cover-up the crimes against humanity committed by the police and the military under Duterte,” he said.

The new Marcos-Duterte administration functions simply as a continuation of its brutal predecessor. ICHRP - a global network of organizations, concerned about the human rights situation in the Philippines and com- mitted to campaign for just and lasting peace in the country - believes the prosecution by the ICC may not stop the Marcos-Duterte government from sheltering the perpetrators from prosecution or prevent such crimes from continuing to occur, but it can provide some constraint and a measure of justice to the victims.

In November 2022, Justice Secretary Jesus Remulla reported to the United Nations Universal Periodic Review that over 17,000 cases of drug killings involving police officers had been reviewed, resulting in a small number of disciplinary actions.

But Murphy said there is no way that this level of inquiry – most unlikely to be genuine – amounts to an investigation of the crime against humanity of murder which the ICC was investigating.

“ICHRP has full confidence in the impartiality of the ICC. We urge the ICC to vigorously pursue the full investigation of the previous Duterte administration for these crimes against humanity so that, finally, justice may be served and impunity ended,” he said.

Murphy, an Australian-based human rights advocate, led Investigate PH, a recent three-part investigation by an international commission on the extrajudicial killings, illegal arrests, abductions and disappearances in the Philippines since July 1, 2016, when Duterte came into power. (Mindanao Examiner)

Continued from page 1

Continued from page 1 an attachment order against Malaysia from a French arbitration court to enforce a US$14.92 billion (RM62.6 billion) payment to the purported “descendants” of the last sultan of Sulu.

In March 2022, the French arbitration court instructed the Malaysian government to pay the Sulu Sultan’s heirs. In July, two Luxembourg-based subsidiaries of Petronas were seized by court bailiffs as part of the heirs’ effort to claim the award.

In a statement issued yesterday (26 Jan), Datuk Seri Azalina Othman Said, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Law and Institutional Reform), said Malaysia applied to the district court of Luxembourg to seek the lifting of the attachment order. The hearing took place on 5 December last year.

“This decision vindicates the government’s policy to vigorously defend Malaysia in every forum to ensure that Malaysia’s interests, sovereign immunity and sovereignty are protected and preserved at all times.”

“Malaysia has consistently refused to recognise the legitimacy of the purported arbitration orchestrated by the Claimants,” she said. “Malaysia has availed itself of all available legal remedies to invalidate the appointment of Dr Stampa and his purported ‘awards’.”

She stressed that the Malaysian government “will spare no effort to this end”.

The self-proclaimed “successors-in-interest” to Sultan Jamalul Kiram II, initiated a claim against the Malaysian government through an international arbitration proceeding in Madrid, Spain since 2018.

Historical background Historical

The Spanish arbitrator Gonzalo Stampa, reasoned that Malaysia had reneged on the 1878 agreements between Sultan Mohamet Jamal Al Alam (the then Sultan of Sulu) and Baron de Overbeck and Alfred Dent, rep- resentatives of the British North Borneo Company.

Sultan of Sulu granted sovereign rights to parts of Sabah today, in return for an annual RM5,300 token payment. In 1936, the payment temporarily ceased when the last formally recognised sultan of Sulu, Jamalul Kiram II died without heirs.

The payment resumed only after North Borneo High Court chief justice Charles F Macaskie named nine court-appointed heirs in 1939.

Malaysia government took over these payments after the formation of the country in 1963 until Datuk Seri Najib Razak administration halted the payment in 2013 when more than 200 armed militants, believed to be linked to the Sulu Sultanate, invaded Lahad Datu and resulted in 78 deaths.

The Malaysian government had claimed that the armed incursion caused a breach of the 1878 agreement, which the heirs of Sulu Sultan disputed. (Yee Loon)