Kalayaan_Island_Group
Kalayaan, Palawan
Municipality in Palawan, Philippines
Kalayaan, officially the Municipality of Kalayaan (Tagalog: Bayan ng Kalayaan), is a 5th class municipality in the South China Sea under the jurisdiction of the province of Palawan, Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 193 people making it the least populated town in the Philippines.[3]
Part of the Spratly Islands, situated within the South China Sea, the Kalayaan municipality's administrative center, Thitu Island (locally known as Pag-asa), is located 227 nautical miles (261 mi; 420 km) off the coast of Palawan,[4][5] outside the Philippines' 200 nautical miles (230 mi; 370 km) exclusive economic zone.
Besides Thitu Island, the municipality comprises six other islands: West York Island, Northeast Cay, Nanshan Island, Loaita Island, Flat Island and Lankiam Cay (respectively locally named Likas, Parola, Lawak, Kota, Patag and Panata), and three shoals or reefs: Irving Reef (Balagtas Reef), Second Thomas Shoal (Ayungin Shoal) and Commodore Reef (Rizal Reef).[6] It is the least populated municipality in the Philippines. Kalayaan's annual budget is 47 million pesos (about $1.1 million).[7] Kalayaan municipality has an airstrip, a naval port, a five-bed lying-in clinic, a police station, a coast guard station, a marine research station, and a small integrated elementary and high school.[8]
Occupied by the Philippines since 1971 when it took the opportunity to seize the islands from the Republic of China (Taiwan) following a storm,[9][10][11] the Philippines sent 80 families to live there in 2002 to strengthen its claims.[12][8][13]
Kalayaan has the highest poverty incidence and is one of the poorest municipalities in the Philippines.
Despite presence of civilian population, the Permanent Court of Arbitration ruled in 2016 that Pag-asa, as well as other high-tide features in the Spratlys, are legally “rocks” as they cannot sustain a stable human community or independent economic life. Hence, they do not generate an exclusive economic zone or continental shelf.[14][15]
There are records of inhabitance, at various times in history, by people from Champa in present-day Vietnam and by the Chinese, and during the Second World War by French Indochina and Imperial Japanese troops.[16][17][18] However, there were no large settlements on these islands until 1956, when Filipino lawyer, businessman, adventurer and fishing magnate Tomás Cloma decided to "claim" a part of the Spratly Islands as his own, naming it the "Free Territory of Freedomland".[19]
In 1946, Vice President Elpidio Quirino reiterated the "New Southern Islands", the forerunner name for Kalayaan, as part of the Philippines.[20]
In 1947, Tomás Cloma "discovered" a group of several uninhabited and unoccupied islands/islets in the vastness of the Luzon Sea.[20]
On May 11, 1956, together with forty men, Cloma took formal possession of the islands, lying some 380 miles (610 km) west of the southern end of Palawan and named them the "Free Territory of Freedomland". Four days later, Cloma issued and posted copies of his "Notice to the Whole World" on each of the islands as "a decisive manifestation of unwavering claim over the territory".[21]
On May 31, 1956, Cloma declared the establishment of the Free Territory of Freedomland, ten days after sending his second representation to the Philippine Secretary of Foreign Affairs, informing the latter that the territory claimed was named "Freedomland".[21]
On July 6, 1956, Cloma declared his claim to the whole world and the establishment of a separate government for the "Free Territory of Freedomland" with its capital on Flat Island (Patag Island). His declaration was met with violent and unfriendly reactions from several neighboring countries especially the Republic of China (ROC; on Taiwan since 1949), when it effectively garrisoned the nearby island of Itu Aba and intercepted Cloma's men and vessels found within its immediate waters on September 24, 1956.
In 1974, Cloma ceded his rights over the islands for one peso, after being imprisoned by Ferdinand Marcos.[22]