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<img loading="lazy" src="https://cdn.kahimyang.com/resources-9/sabah-mar-mac-sm.webp" alt="Marcos and Macapagal on Sabah" />
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(Presidents Ferdinand Marcos and Diosdado Macapagal)
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In his State of the Nation Address on January 28, 1963, Macapagal reported to the people <i>"the most important action taken in the field of foreign relations,"</i> which he said was the filing on June 22, 1962 with the United Kingdom <i>"of the Philippine claim of sovereignty, jurisdiction and proprietary ownership over North Borneo (Sabah) as successor-in-interest of the Sultan of Sulu."</i>
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Macapagal then related that his administration's action to revive the country's stake to the piece of land, which is bigger than Luzon island, was not precipitate.
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He made gracious reference to the United Kingdom in holding the talks in London <i>"for a friendly scrutiny of the Philippine claim, together with the security problems of Southeast Asia."</i>
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It was a royal chartered firm, British North Borneo Company, which secured an agreement with the Sulu Sultanate in 1878 for an indefinite lease on Sabah.
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Sabah then became a British colony after the private operations ceased.
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The father of former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo said he had personally studied the claim over a period of years.  Hwe narrated:
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"In 1948, while serving in the Philippine Embassy in Washington DC, we went over the claim with an American expert in Anglo-Saxon law in George Washington University who sustained the view that this is a valid claim." 
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Macapagal, a lawyer like Marcos and incumbent President Rodrigo Duterte, said the findings of the United States helped to steel his conviction to pursue the claim in favor of the nation. Macapagal then explained:
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"When we served in the Congress of the Philippines, we successfully authored and sponsored in 1950 a resolution for the filing of this claim. Upon becoming President of the Philippines, acting on the conviction that this was not only a valid claim, but that its presentation was demanded by the national interest, it became our inescapable duty to act on the bipartisan resolution of the House of Representatives on 24 April 1962 that the claim be filed now or never.
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He underlined that the Philippines not only has a valid and historic claim to North Borneo. "In addition, the pursuit of the claim is itself vital to our national security. We could not merely view the placing of North Borneo under Malaya (which was how Malaysia was known then), without presentation and consideration of our legitimate claim to North Borneo. Our claim to North Borneo cannot be less than the claim of Malaya to the territory not only on the basis of superior juridical and historic rights, but in the vital interest of our national security." 
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Just a few months after Macapagal's address, on September 16, 1963, the Federation of Malaysia came into existence that included Sabah as one of its states.  Macapagal explained:
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"It was imperative that the Philippine claim be, as it was, made, because if North Borneo was not to be by itself independent, but was to be placed under another state, there is no valid reason why, with the legal and historic basis of the Philippine claim, and considering that North Borneo is contiguous to Philippine territory and vital to our security, the new State to be given jurisdiction over North Borneo should not be the Philippines."
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Another compelling reason for Macapagal then was that Sabah, he believed, is vital to the security of the Philippines:
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"In the event, God forbid, that Malaya succumbs to the potent communist threat on the Asian mainland, with North Borneo under Malaya, there would be created a situation in which a communist territory would be immediately at the southern frontier of the Philippines, which would pose a grave and intolerable threat to our country. Against such a threat, we know that our people will fight to the death, for they will rather die fighting for freedom than live in slavery."
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It was not the communists but extremists coming from Sabah that became a problem for both the Philippines and Malaysia.
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The aim, according to Macapagal, was to give the people of Sabah self-determination:
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"In the prosecution of our valid claim, it is agreeable to us that at an appropriate time, the people of North Borneo should be given an opportunity to determine whether they would wish to be independent or whether they would wish to be a part of the Philippines or be placed under another state."
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He advocated a referendum, which he said <i>"should be authentic and bona fide by holding it under conditions, preferably supervised by the United Nations, that would ensure effective freedom to the people of North Borneo to express their true and enlightened will."</i>
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Macapagal started the ball rolling on claim Sabah, Marcos made it a household item