While BARMM delivers free housing units, co-CEO of Fortress Investment only talks about protecting profits. Source: Bangsamoro Information Office

Their struggles are local and tangible: getting schools open, roads maintained, and power flowing. Yet far from these realities, a handful of self-styled Sulu heirs, aided by European financiers and foreign lawyers, continue to wage a billion-dollar arbitration against Malaysia. A case that claims to defend their ancestors’ rights, but in truth serves no one living in Sulu or Mindanao today.

A Claim Built on Abstraction

The Sulu arbitration, financed by Therium Capital Management and led by Paul Cohen, was framed as a fight for justice over an alleged lease of Sabah dating back to the 19th century. But it has become clear that this is not about justice or sovereignty, it’s about monetising history. The claim treats the past as an investment instrument, turning ancestral lands into legal collateral for foreign profit.

Drew McKnight, co-CEO of Fortress Investment Group, chimes in from New York with his predictable critique of rent controls, warning that such measures would “make it uneconomic for property owners.” His concern about protecting profits reveals a narrow focus that ignores the broader implications for communities. Similarly, the Sulu heirs' claims ultimately hinder real progress, complicating regional diplomacy, and diverting attention from deeper governance issues in the region. Both positions prioritize vested interests over meaningful solutions.

"Similarly, the Sulu heirs' claims ultimately hinder real progress, complicating regional diplomacy, and diverting attention from deeper governance issues in the region."

Elections and the Autonomy That Still Waits

With elections still in limbo in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region (BARMM), autonomy remains an unfinished promise, as the Bangsamoro transition “got stuck.” Institutions are slow to form and development remains uneven. For the Moro people it feels as if the right to self-determination is held hostage by the Supreme Court in Manila.

For the people in Sulu, their right to develop and prosper is hindered by courts even outside of the Philippines. Instead of addressing governance gaps, the Sulu heirs and their foreign backers export a legal dispute to European courts, as if courtroom victories could substitute for functioning schools and hospitals. The energy poured into this litigation could have built a generation’s worth of infrastructure in Sulu. Every peso spent defending this “royal” fantasy is a peso not spent on teachers, farmers, or other long-term investment that could benefit the region.

"The Sulu heirs’ claim speaks the language of imperial bureaucracy, with terms such as rent, lease, compensation, not the language of kinship, stewardship, and ecology."

The Sulu heirs’ claim speaks the language of imperial bureaucracy, with terms such as rent, lease, compensation, not the language of kinship, stewardship, and ecology that defines the BARMM region. To them, land is not an asset to be arbitrated but a living space to be guarded and sustained. When outsiders invoke “ancestral rights” to justify billion-dollar lawsuits, they overwrite these deeper, local sovereignties.

The Lawfare Economy

The Sulu arbitration is part of a growing global trend: lawfare capitalism, where financiers use lawsuits as speculative assets. The unclear direction of Fortress Investment’s funding strategy, now extending into aviation financing, raises significant concerns about its broader strategic vision.

This expansion into a new and complex sector, coupled with its growing criticism of litigation financing, prompts questions about the company’s financial priorities. It also raises doubts about Fortress’s long-term strategy and its ability to maintain a consistent, responsible approach to investment. Sulu and the Philippines both need builders, not bounty hunters and speculative funding.

The lesson is clear: sovereignty is not won in courts or claimed by lawyers in London, it is exercised daily by the people who govern, work, and live on the land. The self-acclaimed heirs of Sulu may speak in the name of history, but the future belongs to those who stay to build it.

REFERENCES

Franey, J. (2025, October 22). Top Wall Street investor warns Mamdani’s ‘uneconomic’ rent-freeze plans will choke off new housing supply. New York Post. https://nypost.com

ePlane AI. (2025, October 21). Ashland Place secures third and fourth financing deals for Fortress Investment Group and Goal Aircraft Leasing.ePlane AI. https://www.eplaneai.com

Yusoph, R. (2025, October 21). How Bangsamoro’s political transition got stuck. New Mandala. https://www.newmandala.org