Manila: Sultan Jamal Al Kiram III has previously rejected an offer of a 100-year lease for Sabah, a local paper has said.

In 2010, Dr Ebrahim Sa’ad, former Malaysian ambassador to the Philippines, went to the home of the Sultan of Sulu, Jamalul Kiram, in Maharlika Village, and offered to rent Sabah for 100 years for P300,000 (Dh 27,000) per year, Dr Fatima Celia Kiram, the sultan’s second wife told the Manila Times.

“When Ambassador Ebrahim Sa’ad went to our residence, he made numerous offers to the sultan like paying a rental up to 100 years,” said Kiram’s wife, adding the meeting happened in October, 2010.

The offer was up from the current P70,000 (Dh5,833) yearly rental.

But the sultan rejected the offer of the Malaysian ambassador, she said, and quoted the sultan as saying that Sabah was “not for sale”.

His father, interim Sultan Punjungan Kiram (who ruled from 1980 to 1983) had instructed all his 13 children not to sell Sabah to the Malaysian government, said acting Sultan Esmail Kiram, the younger brother of Sultan Jamalul Kiram.

Punjungan was the younger brother of Sultan Esmail Kiram I who reigned from 1950 to 1974. The latter granted authority to the Philippine government during the time of former President Diosdado Macapagal, to formally claim Sabah from Malaysia in 1962.

Punjungan lived in exile in Malaysia, after he was crowned prince (and was interim sultan from 1974 to 1981) with a condition that he should transfer his rights to his nephew, Mahakuttah Kiram, the eldest son of Sultan Esmail Kiram I, when the latter gained legal age, in 1974.

When Punjungan returned to the Philippines in 1984, his nephew Mahakuttah Kiram was still young but already a crown prince for 10 years, since 1974.

However, Sultan Mahakuttah Kiram died in 1986. By this time, his son and successor, Datu Muedzul Lail Tan Kiram was only 16.

As a result, Jamalul Kiram III became a claimant to the sultanate. Sources said he was named Sultan in 1984, and came to power in 1986. Former President Gloria Arroyo gave him recognition and asked him to join the ruling party’s senatorial candidates in 2007.

In 1878, Sultan Jamalul A’lam who ruled from 1862 to 1881, signed a lease agreement with British North Borneo, when British colonials allowed the company to operate in Sabah (which was not part of British colony).

Despite this arrangement, British North Borneo Company transferred Sabah to the British colonial rulers, which paved the way for the inclusion of Sabah to the Federation of Malaysia when the latter gained independence from Britain in 1963.

Since 1963, the Malaysian government has been giving lease money to the heirs of theSultan of Sulu.

In 1650, the Sultan of Brunei gave Sabah to the Sultan of Sulu, for helping quell a rebellion in Sabah.