PH calls Chinese ownership claim of Palawan ‘absurd,’ ‘fabrication’

The Philippines on Tuesday described the claim of Chinese citizens that China owned the island of Palawan as “absurd” and a “fabrication”

“Such statements about Palawan are baseless. They are bereft of legal references. They are beyond common sense. In short, totally absurd,” Philippine Navy spokesperson for West Philippine Sea (WPS) Rear Admiral Roy Trinidad said in a press briefing. 

“It will never happen that a part of the Philippines will be included in the sovereign territory of any other country,” he added.

A social media post is circulating in Chinese social media platforms falsely stating that China once owned and governed Palawan for a period of 1,000 years as “Zheng He Island,” claiming this a basis that the island should be returned to China.

Asked if such misinformation came from the Chinese government, Trinidad said “in an authoritarian state where social media and freedom of expression is regulated by the government, everything is possible.”

In a statement, National Security Adviser Secretary Eduardo Año rejected the claims, labeling these as fabrications intended to deceive its intended audience.

“We categorically reject the baseless and revisionist claims circulating on Chinese social media that Palawan was historically part of China and should be ‘returned’ to it,” Año said.

“These assertions are outright fabrications intended to distort history, deceive the public, and challenge the Philippines' sovereignty over its lawful and internationally recognized territory,” he added.

In response, Año said the government is currently tracing the source of the “disinformation,” which first appeared in Chinese social media app Weibo and Red Note.

“We wish to underscore that they do not come from official government sites nor have they been carried by Chinese mainstream media outlets,” he said.

“Nonetheless, these false narratives, proliferated through digital disinformation and information warfare tactics, appear to be part of a broader effort to undermine Philippine sovereignty and manipulate public perception both in the Philippines and China,” he added.

The National Historical Commission of the Philippines (NHCP) earlier strongly condemned and refuted claims on China’s supposed ownership of Palawan.

According to the NHCP, there were no accounts of Chinese settlements in the area based on the earliest available data from Venetian explorer Antonio Pigafetta in 1521.

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 what is now Brooke’s Point.

The NHCP said that Palawan Island had always been included in the Philippine archipelago, based on historical maps from European cartographers from the 1500s to the 1800s.

Palawan was defined as Philippine territory in the 1898 Treaty of Paris, amended by the 1900 Treaty of Washington.

GMA News Online has sought comment from the Chinese Embassy in Manila about the report but it has yet to provide a statement as of posting time. — RF, GMA Integrated News