2 weeks ago
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THE National Historical Commission of the Philippines (NHCP) on Friday hit out on claims made by Chinese netizens that Palawan is part of their territory.
Social media posts from Chinese netizens claimed that Palawan was theirs and was named "Zheng He Island."
"In the contested claim, Palawan island was called 'Zheng He Island' after the famous Chinese explorer and seafarer who trav-eled the seas and oceans of Asia from the 1300s to the 1400s. It is necessary to note that exploration does not equate to sovereign ownership," the NHCP explained.
"There exists no evidence to support the settlement of a permanent Chinese population in Palawan which has been continu-ously populated since 50,000 years ago through archeological data," the NHCP added.
"The post falsely states that the island of Palawan was once theirs and they have governed it for one thousand years, but the Philippines claims jurisdiction and has named it Palawan. The post originated from the Rednote app, an app similar to TikTok, and adds that the island should be returned to China," the commission added.
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The NHCP emphasized the history of the island and said there is no record or account of any Chinese settlement in Palawan.
"From a historical perspective, no accounts of Chinese settlement were seen in available documents, as early as 1521, through the accounts of Italian chronicler Antonio Pigafetta, who was part of the first circumnavigation of the world. Palawan was popu-lated by communities of similar cultural affinity with the rest of our archipelago," the NHCP explained.
"The head of the expedition had, in fact, made a blood compact with the chief of the community that the NHCP recognized to be in the present day Sitio Tagusao, Brooke's Point, Palawan. This does not, however, preclude the existence of trade relations as our ancestors have, as we are at present, been trading with our neighbors for millennia," the commission added.
"In years since then, historical maps from various European cartographers from the 1500s to the 1800s recognized the inclusion of Palawan Island in the Philippine archipelago as administered by the Sultanate of Sulu and the Spanish Captain-Generalcy of the Philippines. Later, the 1898 Treaty of Paris, amended by the 1900 Treaty of Washington, clearly defined the areas that would become our republic's territory in the present day," the commission added.
The commission also cited that early Filipino polities were connected by sultanates or rajahnates in other parts of Southeast Asia.
"However, our neighbors do not claim sovereignty over Philippine territory over baseless and inaccessible historical fiction. The historical fact clearly and convincingly shows that the Philippines and its predecessor state actors have always exercised sover-eignty over our archipelago and over Palawan in particular," the NHCP said.
The NHCP went on to state that "no other state contests this fact. Not one. This has been accepted by the international com-munity for more than a century. In the said period, the Chinese state has flip-flopped on its claims that culminated in the infa-mous Nine-Dash Line which was soundly declared illegal by the Permanent Court of Arbitration through the 2016 arbitral rul-ing."
The commission said they stand by the Philippine government that "not one inch of Filipino sovereign territory is for sale, nor can any be claimed by states that purport to be our friends yet continue to undermine regional stability through the reprehensi-ble use of questionable historical data."
"Palawan is and will always be Filipino," the NHCP emphasized.
