Kalayaan | |
---|---|
Municipality of Kalayaan | |
Location in the South China Sea and the Philippines | |
Coordinates: 11°03′08″N114°17′00″E / 11.0522°N 114.2833°E | |
Country | Philippines |
Region | Mimaropa |
Province | Palawan |
District | 1st district |
Founded | June 11, 1978 |
Barangays | 1 (Pag-asa) |
Government | |
• Type | Sangguniang Bayan |
• Mayor | Roberto M. del Mundo |
• Vice Mayor | Beltzasar S. Alindongan |
• Representative | Edgardo L. Salvame |
• Municipal Council | Members |
• Electorate | 521 voters (2022) |
Area | |
• Total | 290.00 km2 (111.97 sq mi) |
Elevation | 0 m (0 ft) |
Highest elevation | 14 m (46 ft) |
Lowest elevation | 0 m (0 ft) |
Population (2020 census) [3] | |
• Total | 193 |
• Density | 0.67/km2 (1.7/sq mi) |
• Households | 35 |
Economy | |
• Income class | 6th class municipality |
• Poverty incidence | 76.92% (2020) |
• Revenue | ₱ 91.05 million (2020) |
• Assets | ₱ 277 million (2020) |
• Expenditure | ₱ 76.9 million (2020) |
• Liabilities | ₱ 103.3 million (2020) |
Service provider | |
• Electricity | Kalayaan Municipal Electric System (KAMES) |
Time zone | UTC+8 (PST) |
ZIP code | 5322 |
PSGC | |
IDD : area code | +63 (0)48 |
Native languages | Palawano Tagalog |
Website | kalayaanpalawan |
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, which includes Thitu Island (locally known as Pag-asa, the administrative center of Kalayaan Island Group) is 280 nautical miles (320 mi; 520 km) northwest of Puerto Princesa and 932 kilometres (503 nmi; 579 mi) south-west of Metro Manila. It consists of a single barangay located on Pag-asa Island, which also serves as the seat of the municipal government. Besides Thitu Island, the municipality comprises six other islands: West York Island, Northeast Cay, Nanshan Island, Loaita Island, Flat Island (South China Sea) 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). [4] It is the least populated municipality in the Philippines. Kalayaan's annual budget is 47 million pesos (about $1.1 million). [5]
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. [6]
Formerly an exclusively military installation, Pag-asa Island was opened to civilian settlement in 2002. [6] [7]
Kalayaan has the highest poverty incidence and is one of the poorest municipalities in the Philippines.
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. [8] [9] [10] 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". [11]
In 1946, Vice President Elpidio Quirino reiterated the "New Southern Islands", the forerunner name for Kalayaan, as part of the Philippines. [12]
In 1947, Tomás Cloma "discovered" a group of several uninhabited and unoccupied islands/islets in the vastness of the Luzon Sea. [12]
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". [13]
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". [13]
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. [14]
President Ferdinand E. Marcos created the Municipality of Kalayaan by signing Presidential Decree No. 1596 [15] into law on June 11, 1978. [12] This established what the document described as "a distinct and separate municipality of the Province of Palawan".
PD 1596 defined the boundaries of the municipality as follows:
i.e. 7º40'N 116º00'E; west to 7º40'N 112º10'E; north to 9º00'N 112º10'E; NE to 12º00'N 114º30'E; east to 12º00'N 118º00'E; south to 10º00'N 118º00'E; SW to 7º40'N 116º00'E.
Republic Act No. 9522, [16] which defined the archipelagic baselines of the Philippines, claimed sovereignty over the Kalayaan Island Group under Section 2, sub-paragraph A which described the territory as a "Regime of Islands"—a concept defined in the United Nation Convention on Law of the Sea for similar bodies of land. [17]
In addition to the Philippines, China, Taiwan, Vietnam, and Malaysia all claim the Spratly Archipelago either as a whole or in part. The Philippines occupies 10 reefs and islands. The People's Republic of China presently occupies seven reefs. The Republic of China (Taiwan)'s solitary island is the largest in the archipelago at approximately 43 hectares (0.43 km2). Vietnam occupies 21 islets and reefs. Malaysia claims 7 reefs including Layang Layang which currently hosts a naval base and a diving resort. [18] Interest in the archipelago was reportedly triggered by Cloma's declaration and subsequent assertion by the Philippines.
In March 1976, President Marcos issued the Letter of Instruction (LOI) No.1-76 organizing the AFP Western Command based in Palawan in response to the heightening conflict of interest in the region and to abate any untoward incident.
Kalayaan is located in the western section of the Province of Palawan. It consists of one barangay:
Currently, the barangay exercises jurisdiction over eight islets (four of which are cays) and three reefs, with an aggregate land area of approximately 79 hectares (0.79 km2; 200 acres; 0.31 sq mi). They are as follows:
Feature name | Area | Type | |
---|---|---|---|
Philippine name | International name | ||
Pag-asa | Thitu Island | 32.7 ha (81 acres) | Island |
Likas | West York Island | 18.6 ha (46 acres) | Island |
Parola | Northeast Cay | 12.7 ha (31 acres) | Cay |
Lawak | Nanshan Island | 7.9 ha (20 acres) | Island |
Kota | Loaita Island | 6.5 ha (16 acres) | Island |
Patag | Flat Island | 0.57 ha (1.4 acres) | Cay |
Melchora Aquino | Loaita Cay | 0.53 ha (1.3 acres) | Cay |
Panata | Lankiam Cay | 0.44 ha (1.1 acres) | Cay |
Balagtas | Irving Reef | 0 | Reef |
Ayungin | Second Thomas Shoal | 0 | Reef |
Rizal | Commodore Reef | 0 | Reef |
The islets that comprise the municipality are generally flat. The highest ground elevation is approximately 2 metres (6 ft 7 in) above sea level.
Climate data for Kalayaan, Palawan | |||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
Mean daily maximum °C (°F) | 27 (81) | 26 (79) | 27 (81) | 28 (82) | 29 (84) | 29 (84) | 28 (82) | 28 (82) | 28 (82) | 28 (82) | 28 (82) | 27 (81) | 28 (82) |
Mean daily minimum °C (°F) | 26 (79) | 26 (79) | 26 (79) | 28 (82) | 28 (82) | 28 (82) | 28 (82) | 27 (81) | 27 (81) | 27 (81) | 27 (81) | 26 (79) | 27 (81) |
Average precipitation mm (inches) | 155 (6.1) | 71 (2.8) | 101 (4.0) | 80 (3.1) | 251 (9.9) | 407 (16.0) | 399 (15.7) | 344 (13.5) | 400 (15.7) | 314 (12.4) | 338 (13.3) | 347 (13.7) | 3,207 (126.2) |
Average rainy days | 17.4 | 11.1 | 11.8 | 11.2 | 19.4 | 24.6 | 25.3 | 25.2 | 25.4 | 24.1 | 24.6 | 23.5 | 243.6 |
Source: Meteoblue (modeled/calculated data, not measured locally) [19] |
Year | Pop. | ±% p.a. |
---|---|---|
1980 | 334 | — |
1990 | 50 | −17.30% |
1995 | 349 | +43.92% |
2000 | 223 | −9.16% |
2007 | 114 | −8.84% |
2010 | 222 | +27.45% |
2015 | 184 | −3.51% |
2020 | 193 | +0.94% |
Source: Philippine Statistics Authority [20] [21] [22] [23] |
In the 2020 census, the population of Kalayaan was 193 people, [3] with a density of 0.67 inhabitants per square kilometre or 1.7 inhabitants per square mile. The civilian population, which includes children, was introduced in 2001. [24]
Pag-asa Island (Thitu) hosts a 1,300-meter runway constructed in the early 1970s on orders of Major General Jose Rancudo, Commanding General of the Philippine Air Force. In February 1992, [25] the Armed Forces of the Philippines named the runway "Rancudo Airfield" in honor of its architect.
On June 9, 2020, the Department of National Defense led the inauguration of a beaching ramp on Pag-asa Island (Thitu) which was finally completed after three years. The facility enabled to bring in more materials and equipment to repair and maintain the airstrip and building of other facilities. [26] Also, Department of Transportation (DOTR) confirmed that the new seaport and sheltered port in the Pag-asa Island (Thitu) is completed and ready to operate by June 12. [27] [28]
Smart Telecommunications established a cell site, connected to its main network via VSAT (Very-small-aperture terminal), on Pag-asa Island (Thitu) in 2005 making normal GSM-based cellphone communication with the island possible. The first call on the system took place on June 12 at 5:18 PM between the mayor of the municipality at the time and a Smart Telecom executive. The company completed a maintenance visit to the cell site in 2011, thus ensuring continued operation of the facility. [29] However, the cell site was inactive since 2015. [30] On August 30, 2020, Smart Telecommunications repaired and upgraded its cell site for 4G/LTE services in Pag-asa Island (Thitu). [31] [32]
In April 2021, the Department of Information and Communications Technology announced the installation of free Wi-Fi facilities at Pag-asa Island Elementary School, Barangay Hall, and other sites on the Pag-asa Island. This has allowed children on the island to continue with their distance learning. [33] [34]
By day, the residents get electricity from a power generator owned by the municipal government. By night, they shift to stored solar power that comes from 1.5-volt solar panels installed on the Pag-asa Island. [35] On June 12, 2021, The National Power Corporation switched on its P33 million Kalayaan Diesel Power Plant project that covered the supply, delivery and installation of the 300 kilowatt diesel generating sets, a 13.8-kilovolt (kV) distribution line and fuel oil storage tanks, providing round-the-clock power to the facilities on the Pag-asa Island. [36] [37]
On June 8, 1982, Kota (Loaita) and Panata (Lankiam) islands were designated as marine turtle sanctuaries by the Ministry of National Resources (MNR) when it issued Administrative Order No. 8. [38]
The first recorded election in Kalayaan was on January 30, 1980, where Mr. Aloner M. Heraldo was elected as the first Municipal Mayor.
The Municipality of Kalayaan "demilitarized" on January 18, 1988, and the first appointed Mayor, Alejandro Rodriguez, was replaced by his appointed Vice Mayor, Gaudencio R. Avencena.
The first free election was held on May 11, 1992, where mostly young Municipal officers under the leadership of Mayor Gil D. Policarpio served for nine years (1992-2001).
A new administration assumed office on July 2, 2001, when Mayor Rosendo L. Mantes won the election on May 14, 2001.
It was replaced by Mayor Eugenio B. Bito-onon Jr. who served from June 30, 2010, to June 30, 2016. [39] [40]
The current Mayor of the municipality is Mayor Roberto M. del Mundo, who won an upset victory on May 9, 2016. [41]
Palawan, officially the Province of Palawan, is an archipelagic province of the Philippines that is located in the region of Mimaropa. It is the largest province in the country in terms of total area of 14,649.73 km2 (5,656.29 sq mi). The capital and largest city is Puerto Princesa wherein it is geographically grouped but administered independently from the province. Palawan is known as the Philippines' Last Frontier and as the Philippines' Best Island.
West York Island, also known as Likas Island, and several other names. With an area of 18.6 hectares, it is the third largest of the naturally occurring Spratly Islands, and the second largest of the Philippine-occupied islands. It is 530 yards (485 m) wide, 330 yards (302 m) long, and its highest elevation is 30 feet (9 m).
Bataraza, officially the Municipality of Bataraza, is a 1st class municipality in the province of Palawan, Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 85,439 people.
Culion, officially the Municipality of Culion, is a 3rd class municipality in the province of Palawan, Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 23,213 people.
Lubang, officially the Municipality of Lubang, is a 4th class municipality in the province of Occidental Mindoro, Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 17,437 people.
Puerto Princesa, officially the City of Puerto Princesa, is a 1st class highly urbanized city in the Mimaropa region of the Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 307,079 people.
Balabac, officially the Municipality of Balabac, is a 2nd class municipality in the province of Palawan, Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 42,527 people.
Locally known as Pag-asa Island, its international name is Thitu Island. Having an area of 37.2 hectares, it is the second largest of the naturally occurring island in Spratly Islands. It lies about 500 kilometers (310 mi) west of Puerto Princesa. Its neighbors are the North Danger Reef to the north, Subi Reef to the west, and the Loaita and Tizard Banks to the south. As the poblacion of the Kalayaan municipality of Palawan province in the Philippines, it also administers nearly a dozen other islets, cays and reefs in the Spratly Islands.
Loaita Island also known as Kota Island, with an area of 6.45 hectares -- is the tenth largest of the naturally-occurring Spratly Islands, and the fifth largest of the Philippine-occupied islands. It is located just to the west of the northern part of Dangerous Ground, and is 22 miles (35 km) southeast of Philippine-occupied Thitu Island (Pag-asa) and 22 miles (35 km) north-northeast of Taiwan-occupied Itu Aba Island.
The Philippines has claims on territories which include the Spratly Islands, portions of North Borneo, and the Scarborough Shoal.
Philippines and the Spratly Islands – this article discusses the policies, activities and history of the Republic of the Philippines in the Spratly Islands from the Philippine perspective. Non-Philippine viewpoints regarding Philippine occupation of several islands are currently not included in this article.
Northeast Cay, also known as Parola Island, with a land area of 12.7 hectares, is the fifth largest of the naturally occurring Spratly Islands and the third largest of the Philippine-occupied islands. It is part of the North Danger Reef and is located to the northwest of Dangerous Ground.
Nanshan Island, also known as Lawak Island, is the eighth largest natural island of the Spratly Islands, and the fourth largest of the Philippine-occupied islands. It has an area of 7.93 hectares. It is located 98 miles (158 km) east of Thitu Island (Pag-asa).
Subi Reef, also known as Zamora Reef ; Zhubi Reef ; Vietnamese: đá Xu Bi, is an atoll in the Spratly Islands of the South China Sea located 26 km (16 mi) southwest of Philippines' Pag-asa island Thitu Island under the municipality of the Kalayaan Island Group, Palawan province as claimed by Philippines. It is occupied by China (PRC), and claimed by Taiwan (ROC) and Vietnam. According to the claims of the PRC, it currently falls under the de facto jurisdiction of Nansha islands, Sansha city, Hainan province, China. But under the clauses of the UNCLOS, which the PRC is also a signatory, the international law only the Philippines has the maritime rights to exploit its resources or build structures, as it is within the continental shelf of the coastal country.
The Free Territory of Freedomland was a micronation that covered the Spratly Islands in the South China Sea from 1956 to 1974. It was established by Tomás Cloma.
Irving Reef, also known as Balagtas Reef, is a coral atoll in the Spratly Islands, South China Sea. It is occupied by the Philippines as part of Kalayaan, Palawan, and is also claimed by the People's Republic of China, the Republic of China (Taiwan) and Vietnam.
Sabina Shoal, also known as Escoda Shoal ; Mandarin Chinese: 仙賓礁/仙宾礁; pinyin: Xiānbīn Jiāo; Vietnamese: Bãi Sa Bin, is an atoll in the NE of Dangerous Ground in the Spratly Islands. The Philippines puts it under the jurisdiction of Brgy. Pag-asa, Kalayaan, Palawan. It is also claimed by the People's Republic of China, and the Republic of China (Taiwan) and Vietnam.
Eugenio B. Bito-onon Jr. is a Filipino politician and member of the Liberal Party, who has been elected Kalayaan Mayor twice, serving since 2010. He was re-elected in May 2013, winning his re-election bid with 108 votes against rivals Noel Osorio and Rosendo Mantes. Bit-onon failed in his re-election bid in 2016, coming in second place with 59 votes and losing to the eventual winner Roberto "Choy" M, del Mundo with 142 votes.
Pag-asa is a Tagalog language word meaning "hope". It may refer to:
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