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Sunday, July 7, 2024 Vol. 19 No. 264
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PHILIPPINE-OCCUPIED Pag-asa Island is seen through an aircraft window on Friday, December 1, 2023, in the West Philippine Sea. Having an area of 37.2 hectares, it is the second largest of the naturally occurring islands in the Spratly Islands archipelago. It lies about 500 km west of Puerto Princesa, Palawan. AP/AARON FAVILA
ADVENTURES IN ‘FREEDOMLAND’
REVISITING THE SAGA OF THE CLOMAS, WHOSE FAR-SIGHTED VENTURES PROVIDED THE TRIGGER TO THE PHILIPPINE CLAIM OVER THE DISPUTED SPRATLY ISLANDS
T
By Joel C. Paredes
HE son of the “founder” of disputed Philippine islands and atolls in the Spratlys says his father did not discover the territory, but he was the first to declare a sovereign claim and call it “Freedomland.” According to Ramir Cloma, his father Filemon was then manning a commercial fishing boat when he and his men accidentally landed on one of the Spratly islands near Itu Aba Island to seek shelter from a storm in October 1947. The elder Cloma immediately decided to set his claim on the unchartered territory and planted a Philippine flag. That move, he said, prompted the Philippines to initially assert its sovereignty since Filemon and his elder brother Tomas later proclaimed a micronation that covered the Spratly within Philippine waters off the South China Sea, now known as the West Philippine Sea. Right after the incident, Filemon sailed back to the fishport town of Navotas to brief Tomas on the unclaimed islands since they were business partners in the Visayan Fishing Company. According to Ramir, his uncle never set foot on the Spratly, but he became the de facto “chief of state” of the micronation, which the brothers named the “Free Territory of Freedomland.” “I don’t want to diminish neither of their role, but each person
ADMIRAL Tomas Cloma UP NCPAG
has its own role. Tomas was the general and my father was the soldier,” he said.
A cursed micronation
PROTECTIVE of his elder brother, Filemon never encouraged him to sail to the Spratlys, according to Ramir. Filemon documented their claim through photos and movie reels, which were destroyed during the fire that gutted Filemon’s residence in Sampaloc, he said. “This is how audacious they were. Tomas even granted citizenship [to certain people], believe it or
WAVES surround the Philippine-occupied Lawak Island (also known as Nanshan Island) on Friday, December 1, 2023, in the West Philippine Sea. AP/AARON FAVILA
not, when he declared a sovereign territory in 1951,” he said. Then on July 6, 1956, Tomas Cloma declared to the world that he was establishing a separate government with its capital on Flat Island, also known as Patag Island, in an area totaling 64,900 square miles, located 100 to 300 miles west of the island province of Palawan. The Clomas made a distinction between Freedomland and the Spratly further west, but right af-
ter making their declaration they encountered hostile reaction from neighboring countries, especially Taiwan, which then still claimed sovereignty over mainland China and its outlying island provinces and territories as the Republic of China. Finally on September 24, 1956, Taiwan reoccupied Itu Aba Island, which was also known as Taiping and considered the largest island in the Spratlys, which it had left in 1950. The People’s Republic
of China eventually also restated its own claim. Five days later, two Taiwanese ships intercepted Filemon Cloma’s vessel during an expedition near North Danger Reef and invited him, his chief engineer and other crew members on board the Taiwanese naval vessel Tai He for a conference. After burning the building and confiscating property on one of the disputed islands,they then forced Filemon to sign a waiver over his claim
and acknowledge ROC’s jurisdiction over the Spratly islands.
The martial law factor
WHEN President Ferdinand Marcos Sr. declared martial law in 1972, Filemon and Tomas were ordered arrested to pressure them to waive their claim. “Tomas was a lawyer who passed the Bar a year before Marcos in 1940 so it was not impossible that they knew each other,” Ramir said. Continued on A2
PESO EXCHANGE RATES n US 58.6430 n JAPAN 0.3638 n UK 74.8343 n HK 7.5096 n CHINA 8.0668 n SINGAPORE 43.3878 n AUSTRALIA 39.4374 n EU 63.4165 n KOREA 0.0425 n SAUDI ARABIA 15.6331 Source: BSP (July 5, 2024)