EDITORIAL - Isko should be cautious about pursuing Sabah claim

If he gets elected as president, Manila Mayor Isko Moreno Domagoso said he will push for our claims over Sabah.

“We must pursue it the way we do with the West Philippine Sea. If it is ours historically and we have a valid claim about it, then we must pursue it,” he was quoted as saying by Philstar.com

Yes, sure, it makes for an interesting sound byte from a candidate, and the Sabah claim has not been mentioned by other presidentiables yet. But we don’t know how serious he was when he talked about it. The topic just casually came up during his “listening tour” in Malabon last Thursday.

However, if he is serious in pursuing this claim he should be warned that this issue isn’t something to be taken lightly.

Pursuing our Sabah claim is likely to open a can of worms, and with one of our closest neighboring countries to boot. It also happens to be a country that’s a likely ally in our dispute with China over the West Philippine Sea, so there’s good reason to tread very lightly.

Let’s say if we do somehow successfully get Sabah, our problems will definitely not stop there.

There will be the matter of administrating a region so far removed from the capital. If we have, even to this day, far-flung villages and towns that barely get basic services, how do we effectively administer an area so large and so remote from the mainland?

Then there is the matter of securing a region so far removed from the capital from security threats. With chances that elements in the area itself may become security concerns.

Then there are the people in Sabah themselves, who have been brought up as Malaysians for several decades now. We cannot expect cultural and language barriers to not be a thing. This will add another layer of complications to everything.

We are not saying it shouldn’t be pursued. Only that if Domagoso chooses to do so he must be prepared to address these issues.

But then again, perhaps we are reading too much into this. Perhaps we are even jumping the gun. We have to remember that it is a promise made before an election. In the Philippines this doesn’t really hold much water.