Sometime on March 12, 2001 at Jolo, Sulu, about more than two hundred thousand people from different provinces of Zamboanga Peninsula, Basilan, Cotabato, Davao, Palawan, Tawi-Tawi, Sulu and Sabah were gathered to witness the solemn proclamation and recognition of his Royal Highness Sultan Esmail D. Kiram as the only legitimate Sultan of Kingdom of Sulu Archipelago and North Borneo.

Sultan Esmail Kiram II, who was crowned in Jolo on March 12, 2001, is the sole and rightful Sultan of Sulu and North Borneo.  He satisfies all of the history and traditional rules of succession, whereas no other member of the Kiram Family does, since all the others lack some if not most of the qualifying factors.

Sultan Esmail Kiram II was overwhelmingly endorsed by the rahyat of the Sultanate in Sulu.  On April 7, 2005, The Crown Prince and Royal Datus issued a statement of absolute recognition of Sultan Esmail Kiram II.

Sultan Esmail D. Kiram, is the second son of the late Sultan Punjungan Kiram the designated Administrator of the State of Borneo issued on October 11,1939 by Judge C.F.C Mackaskie of the high Court of North Borneo in a Grant of Letter of Administration. He is the grandson of Datu Raja Muda Mawallil Wasit the Crown Prince of Sultan Jamalul Kiram II his brother.

Datu Raja Muda Mawallil Wasit is the third son of Sultan Jamalul Ahlam who was the signatory to Lease Contract of 1878 between the Sultanate of Sulu represented by Sultan Jamalul Ahlam and the British North Borneo represented by Gustavos Baron Von Overbeck and later sold all his rights to Alfred Dent, a British National.