Sultan of Sulu dies at 76

ZAMBOANGA CITY—Sultan Esmail Kiram II of the Sultanate of Sulu died on Saturday night. The sultan was 76.

Gov. Mujiv Hataman of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao said Mindanao has “lost one great leader with the passing away of Sultan Kiram.”

“He was instrumental in pacifying the developing tension then between the governments of Malaysia and the Philippines when his brother led a siege in Sabah,” Hataman told the Inquirer.

Dayang-dayang Ishvethlana Kiram Abdurajak, the sultan’s eldest daughter, said her father died of kidney failure at the Zamboanga Peninsula Medical Center at 6:30 p.m. on Saturday.

The sultan had a mild asthma attack on Friday, Abdurajak said.

On Saturday morning, while in Davao, Abdurajak said she received a phone call that her father was rushed to a nearby hospital.

Abdurajak is the third of the sultan’s nine children.

Kiram’s remains was scheduled to be airlifted to Sulu on Sunday afternoon. His burial will be in Maimbung town before the sun sets.

Based on the law of succession, the fourth son of the late Datu Punjungan Kiram, identified as Phugdal Kiram, will take over the throne. Julie S. Alipala, Inquirer Mindanao