in 1878, in the vicinity of the mainland of North Borneo from Banggi Island to Sibuku Bay to the British North Borneo Company. In the 1903 agreement, the ambiguous term pajakkan was no longer used, but instead the phrase kita telah keredhai menyerahkan kepada pemerintah British North Borneo, which literally means "we have willingly surrendered to the Government of British North Borneo", was used in the agreement, asserting the understanding of the Sulu Sultanate of that time of the meaning of the earlier agreement in 1878. The confirmatory deed of 1903 makes it known and understood between the two parties that the islands mentioned were included in the cession of the districts and islands mentioned on 22 January 1878 agreement. The originally agreed 5,000 dollars increased to 5,300 dollars per year payable annually. 1939 Macaskie decision In 1939, propriety claimants Dayang Dayang Hadji Piandao and eight other heirs filed a civil suit regarding the "cession money" payable to the heirs of the sultan of Suluthe then incumbent Jamalul Kiram II having died childless in June 1936. Chief Justice Charles Frederick Cunningham Macaskie of the High Court of North Borneo ruled on the share entitlement of each claimant. This ruling has often been quoted by proponents of the Sulu Sultanate's claim as proof of North Borneo's acknowledgment of the sultan's ownership of the territory, although it was made solely to determine who as heir was entitled to the "cession money" of 5,300 Malaysian ringgit per year. Philippine claim The Sultanate of Sulu was granted the north-eastern part of the territory as a prize for helping the Sultan of Brunei against his enemies in 1658. However, on 22 July 1878, the sultan of Sulu relinquished the sovereign rights over all his possessions in favour of Spain, based on the "Bases of Peace and Capitulation" signed by the sultan of Sulu and representatives of the Spanish government in Jolo. The Spanish then claimed the area in northern Borneo, but ended its claim soon under the Madrid Protocol of 1885, after the United Kingdom and Germany recognised its presence in the Philippine archipelago in return for the Spanish to stop interfering the British affairs in northern Borneo. Once the protocol had been ratified, the British North Borneo Chartered Company proceeded with the administration of North Borneo, and in 1888, North Borneo became a British protectorate. On 15 July 1946, the North Borneo Cession Order