(Caption by Nikkei: The self-proclaimed Sultan of Sulu Jamalul Kiram III, left, and his daughter, Jacel. Jamalul died in October 2013. (Photo by AP)

Jacel Kiram, daughter of the late Jamalul III, hoped Malaysia would agree to share Sabah and help develop Sulu as neighbors and fellow Muslims.

“We shouldn’t be fighting,” she told Nikkei Asia. "There’s a way to let both parties shout that they won’t give up sovereignty while reaching a mutually beneficial agreement.”

Princess Jacel lives in Davao with her husband, a high-ranking army intelligence officer. Lawyers for her relatives say Jacel does not speak for them, but the 40-year-oldmother of five has acted as her clan’s self-proclaimed spokesperson since her uncle’s failed invasion of Sabah thrust her into the spotlight.

“My world shrank when Lahad Datu happened,” Jacel said. “I didn’t want this.”

Wearing a black hijab and light-colored shirt and trousers, Jacel spoke to Nikkei Asia in the Davao City high-rise where she runs the Philippines’ governing body for silat, a Malay martial art, as part of her efforts to preserve Sulu and Tausug culture.

“When you think about Sulu, you think about Abu Sayyaf and beheadings. You don’t think about the contributions to Philippine history,” she said.

Despite her title and royal lineage, Jacel is the product of a middle-class upbringing in Manila, where her father, Jamalul III, tried his hand at business. “He promised himself he would work it out for the people of Sulu, then return home once he had become rich,” she said.

Styling himself sultan, Jamalul was courted by politicians in Manila seeking to leverage his name to win votes in Mindanao. Like her father, Jacel in 2016 ran unsuccessfully for the Senate with the party of Vice President Jejomar Binay. She had slim chances of winning a national seat, but Binay said he wanted her on his slate to raise awareness of the Philippines’ claim to Sabah.

Because they lived in Manila, Jacel’s branch had closer ties to the national government than others with competing claims to the sultanate. Her line maintains that the title passes to the oldest surviving male in the family, not the firstborn son — a key point of contention among the family branches.

“If a Sultan is survived by a brother and a son, it goes first to the brother before the son,” Jacel said, defending the claim of her uncle Phugdalun.

Muedzul, whose claim depends on the primacy of sons over brothers, disputes this.

“I can’t blame her because that’s what she was raised to believe. Their grandfather Punjungan planted the idea,” Muedzul said of Jacel’s claim.

Muedzul’s grandfather, Sultan Esmail, was older brother to Jacel’s grandfather Punjungan. Their father, Mawallil Wasit, succeeded his own brother Jamalul II, the childless sultan who died in 1936.

When Mawallil Wasit died suddenly from heart disease and was succeeded by Esmail, Punjungan moved his family to Sabah and espoused a rival claim. Esmail reigned on Jolo island and was succeeded by his eldest son, Mahakuttah, Muedzul’s father.

Muedzul has not left Jolo since the COVID-19 pandemic in2020. For security reasons, he and his relatives named inthe arbitration are unlikely to travel as long as legal proceedings in Europe are ongoing. He complains of weight gain from staying indoors at the request of the local Philippine military chief.

"My situation is now like house arrest," Muedzul said. Local authorities would prefer round-the-clock security, but the cash-strapped sultan can hardly afford food and cigarettes for his guards. Ten soldiers accompany him when he travels to his farm in Maimbung, outside Jolo City, and his younger children are escorted to school by security.

Muedzul's eldest son and crown prince is 22, old enough to succeed him when the time comes.

Through their representatives and in interviews with Nikkei Asia, members of the family said they plan to use the award to develop Sulu, improve roads, build schools and hospitals, and provide scholarships. Malaysia could even recast itself as an investor in Mindanao, they said.

Malaysia would want the Philippine government involved to guarantee a final settlement. "If it's a settlement, it must be a one-and-done settlement," Oh said. "No more claims, no more annual payments."

But, he added: "The Philippine government is not eager to settle this. No country would want to relinquish their claim to such a big piece of land."

Seeing Sabah as part of its territory, the Philippines has no permanent diplomatic presence in the state, leaving hundreds of thousands of migrant Filipinos without representation.

Ingal, a Jolo native in his 60s, came to Lahad Datu in 1984. Without Malaysian birth certificates or identification cards, none of his 10 children were educated. He works as a fishmonger in the town market with his second son and rarely takes the 45-minute boat trip to visit Jolo.

"Over there, there's too much police. Here, it's peaceful," Ingal told Nikkei Asia.

The only time Ingal remembers strife in Lahad Datu was when Agbimuddin's troops landed in 2013. Malaysian officials buried the felled invaders according to Muslim rites but avoided laying them to rest in one place lest it became a monument for sympathizers. Their graves are scattered across Sabah.

"We only realized Agbimuddin had escaped because he was not among the arrested and his body was not among the corpses," said Hamzah Taib, former police commissioner of Sabah. Lahad Datu was one of his final operations in a 41-year career with the Malaysian police. Ten years later, the loss of young officers in the standoff still causes him pain.

Agbimuddin died in Tawi-Tawi less than two years after the Lahad Datu invasion, the only time that his family confirmed he had made it back to the Philippines. Ill with diabetes, he had asked Hamzah's negotiators for food and medicine.

"I pitied him. He didn't look like a rajah," Hamzah told Nikkei.

The standoff was merely a blip in normal relations between Malaysia and the Philippines. This March, Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim and President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. agreed to pursue "in-depth talks" between their foreign ministers to resolve the Sabah claim.

The family's elders are less optimistic.

"Not in our lifetime," Rasul said. "There are a lot of spurious claimants coming out. It's going to be long and protracted."