MANILA, Philippines — The nation’s historic physique on Friday denounced the false declare circulating in Chinese language social media Rednote that the island of Palawan as soon as belonged to China.
A submit from Rednote falsely claimed that the province was as soon as a Chinese language territory and that it had ruled it for a couple of millennium, the Nationwide Historic Fee of the Philippines (NHCP) stated.
The submit even acknowledged that the Philippines ought to return Palawan to China, claiming that its authentic identify was “Zheng He Island” after the well-known 14th century Chinese language explorer.
“The historic truth clearly and convincingly exhibits that the Philippines and its predecessor state actors have at all times exercised sovereignty over our archipelago and over Palawan specifically,” the NHCP stated in a press release.
“No different state contests this truth,” the fee burdened. “Not one.”
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NHCP additionally famous that there exists no proof to help the settlement of a everlasting Chinese language inhabitants in Palawan which has been repeatedly populated since 50,000 years in the past via archeological information.
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Even when the submit claims had been to be true, the fee burdened that “exploration doesn’t equate to sovereign possession.”
“Neither does vassalage by a predecessor nation equate to sovereign rule within the current day,” the NHCP stated.
Likewise, NHCP stated early Filipino polities nationwide had been, at one level or one other, carefully linked to sultanates and rajahnates in different components of Southeast Asia.
“Nevertheless, our neighbors don’t declare sovereignty over Philippine territory over baseless and inaccessible historic fiction,” it stated.
Such outright false claims had been made amid the rising tensions between Manila and Beijing within the West Philippine Sea, the physique of water inside the nation’s unique financial zone west of Palawan.
Beijing asserts sovereignty in virtually all the South China Sea, together with a lot of the West Philippine Sea.
In 2012, Manila and Beijing had a tense standoff over Panatag Shoal, with the previous withdrawing its ships from the shoal that led to the latter having an efficient management of its lagoon thus far.
A yr later, Manila lodged an arbitration case in opposition to Beijing after this standoff which led to a historic 2016 arbitral award that successfully rejected the latter’s sweeping claims within the West Philippine Sea via its nine-dash line, now ten-dash-line after the inclusion of one other line within the japanese part of Taiwan in 2023.
“The Chinese language state has flip-flopped on its claims that culminated within the notorious 9-Sprint Line which was soundly declared unlawful,” the NHCP famous.
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It included in its baseless ten-dash-line the areas of Kalayaan Island Group, the place the Kalayaan municipality of Palawan is positioned.
“Palawan is and can at all times be Filipino,” the NHCP stated.
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