Senate President Pro Tempore Panfilo “Ping” Lacson has strongly opposed a proposal to abandon the Kalayaan Island Group (KIG), warning that doing so would amount to surrendering Philippine sovereignty.
In a social media post, Lacson said that relinquishing the KIG is equivalent to giving up any major part of the country.
He stressed that international law supports the Philippines’ claim over the islands.
“‘Giving up’ the Kalayaan Island Group is no different from giving up Luzon Island or the entire country.”
“Under international law, first discovery and possession of land that belongs to no one under the legal principle of ‘res nullius’ or ‘terra nullius’ is a recognized mode of sovereign ownership. Even non-lawyers were taught this in school,” he added.
The proposal was earlier raised by Senate Deputy Minority Leader Rodante Marcoleta, who argued that some islands in the KIG are beyond the Philippines’ 370-kilometer exclusive economic zone (EEZ).
“Ano ba talaga ang ipagpapatayan natin dito? We will offer our lives, including the lives of our children, to die for it, for something that is not even within our EEZ… Ang gawin natin po para madali, i-give up natin ang KIG,” Marcoleta said during a Commission on Appointments hearing.
In a radio interview, Lacson countered the suggestion, pointing to the presence of Filipinos on Pag-asa Island as proof of Philippine sovereignty.
“When I heard Sen. Marcoleta say that we should give up KIG, I had to clear the issue and assert why KIG is ours… I cannot accept that because there are Filipinos living on Pag-asa Island,” he said.
The Kalayaan Island Group, part of the disputed Spratly Islands, is home to around 300 Filipinos and remains contested by China despite the 2016 arbitral ruling that favored the Philippines.
Marcoleta’s remarks have since sparked backlash, with critics branding him and other senators who opposed a resolution against the Chinese Embassy as “Tsina-tors.”