A short history for interested onlookers:

PHILIPPINES VS. GREAT BRITAIN
Oil-rich Sabah, formerly known as North Borneo, has an area of 29,388 square miles with a coastline of 600 miles. The Philippine claim of sovereignty over Sabah is based on historical and legal grounds. In 1704, the Sultanate of Brunei ceded Sabah to the Sultanate of Sulu for the latter's help to suppress a rebellion in Brunei. In 1878, Baron Gustavo de Overbeck, the Austrian Consul General in Hongkong, brokering for British Alfred Dent, Esquire, obtained a lease on it from the Sultan of Sulu for 5,000 Mexican dollars, which was changed to 5,000 Malaysian ringgit when Malaysia took over the territory from the British government. The lease contract--worded in Malaysian language and written in Arabic--used the Tausug term PADJAK meaning lease. But the British translated the word to mean "CESSION". This original document is the basis in the legal claim of sovereignty over Sabah. Overbeck and Dent formed the British North Borneo Company, which administered Sabah under a Royal Charter. On July 10, 1946, six days after the Philippines gained independence from the U.S., the British government without notifying the Sultan of Sulu or the Government of the new Republic of the Philippines annexed Sabah as a Crown Colony.

PHILIPPINES VS. UNITED NATIONS & MALAYSIA
Diosdado Macapagal's administration was marked by a territorial dispute with Britain over Sabah. The Philippines claimed the territory had been leased and not sold to the British North Borneo Company in 1878.
Ferdinand E. Marcos inherited the territorial dispute over Sabah and approved in 1968 a congressional bill annexing Sabah to the Philippines. Malaysia suspended diplomatic relations (Sabah had joined the Federation of Malaysia in 1963), and the matter was referred to the United Nations.

SULTAN AS FILIPINO KING
The sultanate is the only surviving institution of pre-Spanish Malay civilization and culture, its tradition the only authentic link of the Filipino Malay heritage from the past to the present. Before the coming of the European and American colonizers, the Moros (or Muslims) practiced freely and independently their sociocultural-religious traditions, governed by political authorities under the government of the sultan. The sultanate was established in the 14th century by an Arab missionary, Sayid Abubakar, who married Paramisuli, daughter of Rajah Baginda. Upon the death of his father-in-law, Abubakar was proclaimed Sultan Sharif-ul Hashim, the first sultan of Sulu. His sphere of influence covered such a wide territory that his kingdom was known as "Suluk Empire" even in faraway China.
Unlike European royal houses where a king or queen can be succeeded by their siblings only if they do not have any children, in the sultanate succession is both ``vertical’’ (children) or ``lateral’’ (siblings, cousins or even nephews). After the datus in council have decided the successor, a public proclamation is held. This is not to be mistaken with the actual coronation. A specific date is set for the coronation after much deliberation.
The daughter of a sultan can succeed her father as sultana or pangyan, provided her husband is a royal datu or if she marries one within seven days after her father’s death. Her husband will have greater chances of becoming the sultan, especially if he did not have a sultan in his family for five or six generations.
Today, the Sultan of Sulu, His Royal Highness Sultan Esmail Kiram Ibni Al-Marhum Sultan Punjungan Kiram Al-Shariful Hashim is the 37th in an unbroken line of Sulu sultans descended from Rajah Baginda, who founded the sultanate in 1430.

SABAH/NORTH BORNEO HISTORY
Sabah was known to the Sulu pirates as the "Land Below the Wind" because of its position below the typhoon belt. European influence intensified after the Scottish voyager Alexander Dalrymple reached the Sulu Sea (1759). Although the British were active in the area throughout the 19th century, notably on the offshore island of Labuan, which became a crown colony in 1848, the mainland was not occupied until 1877, when a private syndicate (chartered in 1881 as the British North Borneo Company) obtained lease land and grants respectively from the Sultans of Sulu and Brunei. The territory acquired its boundaries in 1898.

PEOPLE OF SABAH
Sabah has over 500,000 million Filipino residents. Its main ethnic groups are Filipinos, Sabahans, Kadazan and Malaysians.

SABAH'S NATURAL RESOURCES
Gold is found near the Taliwas River, and offshore drilling for oil led to development of the Tembungo field.

HEY lotsa pictures of goodlooking Pinoys and Pinays! (After the political plug!) in the following: Go visit!

http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/world/A0860349.html
http://www.sandakan.com

LUV SANDAKAN

Reasons Why I Am Not An American

(Got this from somevbody else, but I agree!)
1. I was born in Asia.
2. I was born in the Philippines.
3. My father is pure blooded Indian.
4. My mom is half Filipino and half Spanish.
5. It is clear that I am one half Indian.
6. I am one fourth Spanish.
7. I am one fourth Filipino.
8. I am not a Caucasian.
9. I am a Filipino citizen by birth.
10. I have tan skin.
11. I am not pale.
12. I do not have blue eyes.
13. I do not have blond hair.
14. I do not have brown hair.
15. My hair is black. Jet black.
16. I love my black hair, and not once have I streaked or dyed it in any color.
17. I speak in Filipino language.
18. I speak in English, but with my own accent.
19. I live in Quezon City.
20. I live in the Philippines.
21. I live in Asia.
22. I eat rice and ulam ("viand")
23. I go to a Filipino McDonald's where they serve rice and ulam.
24. Ulam ("viand") can be chicken, beef, hotdog, spam, lamb, pork, bacon...all eaten with rice.
25. I eat my ulam dipped in sabaw ("sauce")
26. I pour ketchup over my rice and ulam when I eat.
27. I eat hilaw na mangga ("raw mango").
28. I eat hilaw na mangga ("raw mango") dipped in bagoong ("smelly fish paste"). Pinoy mangoes are still the best of them all.... i also love lanzones, rambutan sineguelas, pomelo, guyabano, diff types of bananas (u can get some of these elsewhere in Asia and Australia pero masarap pa rin Pinas)

Pinoy Food - tinapang bangus, taba ng talangka, bagoong, pampanga tocino ang longanissa, sisig, lechon, laing, pancit malabon, pan de sal, mamon, ensaymada, espasol, buko pie, cassava cake, sisig, diff types of isaw, balot, penoy, banana q, turon, etc.
chicken gizzard, and isaw, and adidas, and sisig
29. I eat balot ("duck eggs") fishballs and squidballs and sisig at "kanto" street corners. ki2am, squidballs, frenchfries na may flavor, scramble, cheese sticks, fishballs, shawarma (i miss this one), sisiw na prito at marami pang iba...
30. I eat isaw, fishball and kikiam with sauce which I buy from street corners.
31. When I was young, I used to drink softdrinks or Coke in a plastic bag with a straw.
32. I walk under the sun's scorching humid heat and get pawis ("sweaty")
33. My skin can tolerate the heat of the sun. I don't get sunburned. Enjoying sunsets over Manila Bay and other beaches.
34. My skin is immune to insect bites.
35. I can kill flies with a fly swatter.
36. I can kill cockroaches with a slipper.
37. I wear slippers, shorts and ratty pambahay ("home clothes") at home.
38. My pamabahay ("home clothes") are different from my going-out clothes.
39. I ride in a tricycle to and from school.
40. I know how to get on and off a jeep.
41. My boyfriend made ligaw ("courted") me for 8 months before I made sagot ("gave him permission to be my boyfriend") him. How traditional.
42. I use tabo ("a pail") to wash up after using the toilet. I don't rely on tissue papers.
43. I take a bath every day. Twice, or thrice even. With a tabo. Under the shower, of course, but still with a tabo.
44. In fancy hotels, here and abroad, I take home little shampoo bottles, soaps, stationary, pens and the like.
45. In fancy restaurants, here and abroad, I take home napkins and toothpicks with the name logo on them.
46. In fast food places, I take home packets of condiments, like salt, sugar and ketchup.
47. I am a sole survivor of daily "brownouts" in the past. Now I'm immune to doing things in the dark under candlelight or flashlight.
48. I use text messaging on my cellphone to the fullest. This includes spending time on composing text messages, text jokes, text forwards, picture messages, etc.
49. I own countless of ringtone composer books with millions of ringtones of millions of songs, in which I spend hours trying to compose on my cellphone.
50. I love and eat ube ("purple") ice cream, tong-its and pusoy dos.