The perennial claim on Sabah by (political) elements in the Philippines is seasonal, rather than structural. It is often mounted on the basis of individual and political calculations, notwithstanding the legal and historical dimensions that surround the issue.

When thousands of Filipinos are deported from Sabah, for instance, the calls to reclaim it surge. On other occasions, the claim is made by individuals who seek to bask in the limelight of the media. One such incident came to a head on Oct 3.

Under the pretext of being the newly crowned Sultan of Sulu, Rodinood Julaspi Kiram, also known as 'Robinhood' in the Philippines, resurrected the old argument that Malaysia was illegally occupying Sabah.

Rodinood claims that the British, who had been renting the territory from the Sultan of Sulu from 1878 had no prior right to turn it over to Malaysia in 1963 in the first place. Abdul Patta Hadjibun, a spokesman for the families of the nine heirs of the late Sultan of Sulu and North Borneo, has called Rodinood "bogus".

Hadjibun affirmed that the nine genuine heirs were recognised in a 1939 British court judgment, which ordered the crown colony to pay an annual lease of US$1,300 to the sultan's family. The descendants of the nine heirs now number around 70. Of the nine heirs, five are vying for the sultanship today.