Tomas Cloma relative asked about Kalayaan Island discovery in CA hearing

Senator Rodante Marcoleta on Tuesday pressed his claim about the discovery of the Kalayaan Island Group by questioning the wife of a descendant of Filipino adventurer and businessman Tomas Cloma during a committee meeting of the Commission on Appointments (CA).

During a hearing of the CA committee on national defense, Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) Nurse Corps Colonel Jacquelyn C. Cloma was asked by Marcoleta if Senate President Pro Tempore Panfilo “Ping” Lacson’s claim that the Kalayaan Island Group was discovered by the late adventurer was supported by reliable accounts.

Jacquelyn Cloma identified herself as the wife of a great-grandson of Tomas Cloma.

“I have seen and read some references about it, sir,” she said.

To recall, Lacson and Marcoleta had exchanged words over the supposed discovery of the Spratly Islands – which houses the Kalayaan Island Group — by Tomas Cloma.

According to Marcoleta, when Cloma made a freedom declaration of the Kalayaan Islands in 1956, several countries such as the United Kingdom, the United States, China, Japan, Australia, and even the Philippines objected.

“According to the objectors, Kalayaan Island Group at that time is no longer treated as terra nullius, which means that it is not unoccupied. And it was not undiscovered. Kaya po (that’s why), Colonel, pati ang ating bansa (even our country) vigorously objected,” he said.

“And that is why it is not correct to assume that he discovered it because [of] several other discoverers, prior to his time,” he added.

This developed after Lacson, during the same committee meeting, sent his regards to Cloma’s family.

“Please extend my regards and I'd like to thank him for discovering and occupying and owning and donating to the Philippine government the Kalayaan Island Group,” Lacson told Jacquelyn Cloma.

Lacson previously said that facts should speak for themselves when it comes to the discovery of the Spratly Islands.

The Senate President Pro Tempore cited information from the official website of Kalayaan municipality in Palawan showing that Cloma supposedly discovered the then previously uninhabited group of islands in 1947.

He also cited that Cloma took formal possession of the Kalayaan Islands on May 15, 1956 when he issued a "Notice to the Whole World" asserting ownership over 33 features in the Spratlys. By the 1970s, the adventurer supposedly ceded his claim to the Philippine government for the symbolic sum of one peso.

He said this then paved the way for President Ferdinand Marcos to officially establish the Municipality of Kalayaan under Presidential Decree No. 1596 in 1978. — BAP, GMA Integrated News