Some of the heirs of the Sultanate of Sulu are amenable to being paid an out-of-court settlement by the self-proclaimed trustee of the alleged gold deposits of the late President Ferdinand Marcos Sr.
Efren Rexie Bugaring, legal counsel of the trustee holding the purported gold deposits in Singaporean and Malaysian banks, said the heirs are not parties to the cases filed leading to the Paris arbitration award of $14.9 billion to the sultanate’s descendants.
“Some of the sultanate’s heirs are now Malaysian citizens and they welcome an out-of-court settlement of the claim (against Malaysia),” said Bugaring, who clarified President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. is not the account holder of the claimed gold deposits.
Nonetheless, Bugaring said the President can help the trustee in initiating the withdrawal of the gold deposits so they could be used to help the country’s economy and, partly, to pay the sultanate’s heirs.
Malaysia has been fighting the arbitral award tooth and nail over its non-payment of lease money for Sabah to the sultanate since 2013.
A source told Daily Tribune this week that some 400 metric tons of gold nuggets entrusted to the late President Marcos by the sultanate were transferred to the Central Bank but have gone missing.
The source said the gold deposits were part of Germany’s loot during World War 2 which was recovered by Rev. Jose Antonio Diaz, also known as Col. Severino Sta. Romana of the US Office of Special Operations.
The gold nuggets were deposited in the Vatican and later transferred to Switzerland, the source averred. “The late President Marcos was the lawyer of Father Sta. Romana in facilitating the deposit and transfer of the gold bullion,” the source said.
Aside from the German loot, the late President allegedly ordered the transfer of the sultanate’s own gold to the Central Bank in the early 1960s, with Sultan Jamalul Kiram wanting it to serve as dollar reserves backing.
The deposits allegedly included the accumulated gold payments to the sultanate for the lease of Sabah from 1878 to 1950 by the British North Borneo Company.
“When transferred, Sultan Kiram wanted the gold to be used for the benefit of the nation and the lawful heirs of the Sultanate,” the source said, somehow explaining why the trustee wanted to give part of the gold to the sultanate’s heirs.
The Sulu sultanate’s claim to Sabah stemmed from the Sultan of Brunei ceding the territory, also known as North Borneo, to the former for its help in quelling a rebellion in 1704.
After the British left, Sabah joined the Federation of Malaysia during its creation in 1963, with the latter paying the Sulu sultanate RM5,300 annually as rent.
The Sulu sultanate’s arbitral award stemmed from Malaysia stopping rental payments in 2013 on account of a faction of the sultanate staging the bloody Lahad Datu incursion.
The $14.9 billion is the sum of the missed payments plus other awards.