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Kota Kinabalu: SAPP accused Parti Warisan leaders of making reckless statements that seemingly condone Philippines’ claim to the extended continental shelf off Sabah.
The Philippines base their claim to the extended continental shelf under UNCLOS (UN Convention of Law of the Sea 1982) by virtue of their claim to Sabah.
“In simple language, the Philippines recently used the Northern-Western coastlines of Sabah as their baselines to extend their continental shelf into the South China Sea.
“The Philippines had filed their claim at the UN and then sent an Ambassador-level delegation to the UN to press their case,” said its President Datuk Seri Yong Teck Lee.
The Philippines mainstream and social media have made a big splash of their government’s adventures at the UN. For the record, Malaysia has lodged an objection to the Philippines claim at the UN.
Yong said the Parti Warisan spokesman had urged Malaysia to join the Philippines in commemorating the 10th anniversary of the 2016 arbitral ruling of a United Nations arbitration tribunal on the South China Sea dispute between China and the Philippines.
Yong said That ruling has no legal basis under international law, it cannot be enforced and it does not bind anyone except the Philippines.
“Does Warisan know that the Philippines has sneaked in an official claim” Yong asked.
“Or that no other Asean country joined in the Philippines’s commemoration of the 2016 arbitral ruling?”He also questioned Warisan’s silence on the Philippines’s claim to the extended continental shelf that overlaps with Sabah’s maritime territory.
“Sabah has our own maritime rights by virtue of the United Kingdom Order in Council 1954, Malaysia Agreement 1963, the Malaysian Constitution and UNCLOS 1982.
Sabah must not tag along the nonsensical arbitral ruling of 2016 of the Philippines.
“What they hope for is one mistake by Malaysia like the 2019 Sulu claims,” said Yong.
