NHCP condemns, refutes Chinese claim of ownership over Palawan

The National Historical Commission of the Philippines (NHCP) strongly condemned and refuted claims from Chinese citizens who said China owned Palawan Island, according to the report of Chino Gaston on "24 Oras" Monday.

According to a statement on Friday, the NHCP said that a recent social media post circulating in Chinese social media platforms falsely stated that China had owned and governed Palawan for 1,000 years as “Zheng He Island” after a famous Chinese explorer, who explored Asia from the 14th to 15th centuries, so the island should be returned to China.

The wrong information that is being spread through social media, said NHCP, seems to be setting the mindset of Chinese citizens.

"By conditioning their public, conditioning yung mga citizens nila to slowly accept Palawan might be their territory they're forming a mindset na maging acceptable later on in the future biglang Palawan, mismong probinsiya ng Pilipinas mainland ike-claim na nila," said Josef Alec Geradila, NHCP Communication team member.

“There exists no evidence to support the settlement of a permanent Chinese population in Palawan which has been continuously populated since 50,000 years ago through archeological data,” said the NHCP.

NHCP added that there were no accounts of Chinese settlements in the area based on the earliest available data from Antonio Pigafetta in 1521, while Palawan was already populated with “communities of similar cultural affinity with the rest of our archipelago” and had made blood pacts with the explorer in Brooke’s Point Palawan.

The NHCP said that Palawan Island had always been included in the Philippine archipelago, based on historical maps from European cartographers from 1500s to the 1800, and was defined as Philippine territory in the 1898 Treaty of Paris, amended by the 1900 Treaty of Washington.

Meanwhile, the Commission noted that other neighbors and trade relations of the country in other parts of Southeast Asia had not claimed sovereignty over Philippine Islands “over baseless and inaccessible historical fiction.”

“The historical fact clearly and convincingly shows that the Philippines and its predecessor state actors have always exercised sovereignty over our archipelago and over Palawan in particular. No other state contests this fact… This has been accepted by the international community for more than a century,” the statement read.

“In the said period, the Chinese state has flip-flopped on its claims that culminated in the infamous Nine-Dash Line which was soundly declared illegal by the Permanent Court of Arbitration through the 2016 arbitral ruling,” it continued.

NHCP reiterated on their stance that the Philippine territory cannot be claimed by any other state “that purport to be our friends yet continue to undermine regional stability.”

“Palawan is and will always be Filipino,” NHCP said.

Geradila said the spread of this wrong information about Palawan may be connected to Beijing's claim over the Kalayaan Group of islands in the West Philippine Sea.

The National Security Council views the spread of wrong information against the Philippines is connected to the territorial dispute over the West Philippine Sea.

"We hope na walang kinalaman ang Chinese government dito. Although we cannot conclusively determine that, as of now. Ang masasabi lang natin, it does not come from official Chinese sources," said Jonathan Malaya, National Security Council assistant director general.

GMA Integrated News has asked for a statement the Chinese Embassy but no reply has yet been issued. — Jiselle Anne Casucian/BAP, GMA Integrated News