Kalayaan execs to Senate: Keeping Marcoleta’s ‘give up’ remarks implies ‘consent’

Leaders of the Municipality of Kalayaan in Palawan have petitioned Congress to expunge from its records Senator Rodante Marcoleta’s “defeatist” remarks suggesting to “give up” the town to China to ease tensions in the West Philippine Sea.

In a resolution furnished to Senate President Tito Sotto, the municipality’s Sangguniang Bayan asserted that retaining Marcoleta’s statements in the permanent records of the Commission on Appointments — where he floated the proposal during a 4 February hearing — implied “consent" to abandon the Kalayaan Island Group.

The officials denounced the remarks as a “betrayal” and “dismissal” of the residents’ right to live securely within their territory.

“[S]uch an insinuation effectively ‘orphans’ a legitimate political subdivision of the Republic of the Philippines and mocks the bravery of the men and women stationed at Pag-asa Island and surrounding features,” the resolution dated 16 February reads.

The Sangguniang Bayan maintained that it will not cede an inch of the KIG and said “any record suggesting otherwise is historical error that must be corrected.”

Sotto, the Commission on Appointments’ ex officio chairperson, confirmed receiving the resolution on Thursday.

He declined to comment on possible developments pending a review of procedures.

Senate President Pro Tempore Ping Lacson agreed to expunge Marcoleta’s contentious statements from the records but said it would not materialize unless a formal motion is filed.

"A motion to strike off the records of the CA is needed. A letter addressed to CA chairman, Senate President Vicente Sotto III, through the CA defense committee chairman will serve as a strong basis for such a motion," he averred.

Previously, Lacson said retaining Marcoleta’s remarks in the congressional records could weaken the Philippines’ position on the KIG, a focal point in Manila and Beijing’s territorial dispute in the South China Sea. Kalayaan forms part of the Spratly Islands in the SCS, located west of Palawan.

China has consistently asserted jurisdiction over nearly the entire South China Sea, overlapping with the West Philippine Sea, despite a 2016 arbitral ruling that declared Beijing’s expansive claims invalid.

Marcoleta has faced intense backlash over his statement to “give up” the KIG and that Filipinos should not “die for it as its features are"way beyond" the Philippines' exclusive economic zone.”

Marcoleta later clarified that his statements were taken out of context and said critics deliberately manipulated the narrative to provoke public outrage.