'REMOVE IT FROM RECORDS': Marcoleta insists Spratly not discoverd by Tomas Cloma

After drawing backlash for allegedly proposing to give up the Kalayaan Island Group in the West Philippine Sea, Senator Rodante Marcoleta on Tuesday called for an end to the “distortion” of historical facts by removing from records that the Spratly Island was discovered by the late lawyer and fishing magnate Tomas Cloma and had it transferred to the Philippine government.

The recommendation follows statements by Senator Ping Lacson during a 4 February hearing that Cloma discovered Spratlys under res nullius (property of no one), or that whoever discovers and occupies a land proclaimed formal ownership of the area.

Cloma turned over the ownership to the Philippine government, which was formalized under Presidential Decree 1596 signed by then President Marcos Sr., according to Lacson.

However, Marcoleta called it “historical distortion” because “there are a lot of discoveries already prior to 1956,” when Cloma declared it as freedom land.

In fact, he claimed that the Philippines was among the countries, alongside the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, Japan, and China, that objected to it because the Spratlys were not considered “undiscovered” or “unoccupied.”

“It should not be distorted. Tomas Cloma is a seafarer; he's not a discoverer,” Marcoleta said during a hearing of the Senate Committee on National Defense and Security, Peace, Unification, and Reconciliation.

“We own the occupied territories, not because they were discovered or donated by Tomas Cloma. We own them simply because our people are there, and we have effective control, so let's not involve Tomas Cloma in things that are not his business,” Marcoleta continued in Filipino.

The minority senator believed that the topic must be corrected in schools to ensure students are not misinformed.

“That’s the only part we should not follow because it’s wrong…That’s the only part I want us to remove,” he said. “That was all wrong. That is historical distortion. I think that is very, very clear.”

Lacson was quick to debunk Marcoleta’s assertions, contending that the historical information has been acknowledged by the municipality of Kalayaan in Palawan and posted on their official website.

Lacson insisted an “Independence Claim” was made on 6 July 1956, when Cloma established a separate government for the “Free Territory of Freedomland,” with its capital on Flat Island (Patag Island). By the 1970s, Cloma ceded his claim to the Philippine government for P1.

"This paved the way for President Ferdinand Marcos to officially establish the Municipality of Kalayaan under Presidential Decree No. 1596 in 1978," he said.

The discussion on the Spratlys followed a series of heated confrontations between Marcoleta and Lacson over the KIG, which forms part of the Spratlys located in the South China Sea.

Marcoleta said he raised the issue to push back against his critics, who “paint me as the villain.”

Aside from the Philippines, Taiwan, Vietnam, and Brunei also assert jurisdiction over the contested Spratly Islands.

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

Marcoleta has since walked back his statements, asserting that they were taken out of context and that his detractors deliberately manipulated the narrative to incite outrage.