Bagong Alyansang Makabayan rejects the spurious claim of some so-called Chinese scholars that Batanes should be considered part of China’s territory.
It is baseless, reckless, and unnecessarily creates a fictitious issue that stokes maritime tensions and will surely be used by US apologists to justify the expansion of US operations in the Philippines beyond the fact that US troops are already operating in Itbayat, Batanes, together with the Philippine Marines Expeditionary Force.
In recent months, Cagayan, Batanes, and other areas in north Luzon have witnessed greater military buildup and provocative military exercises conducted by US-led forces. The US has transported its missile systems from Clark to Cagayan and Batanes even as US EDCA sites were reinforced in Cagayan. At the same time, Japan test-fired its Type 88 missile in Ilocos Norte.
Clearly, the northern part of the Philippines near Taiwan is turning into another hotspot that could intensify militarization and warmongering among the imperialist powers and drag the Philippines further into armed conflict, further endangering our communities, undermining our national security and sovereignty, and making it more difficult to resolve our dispute with China through peaceful and diplomatic solutions.
The absurd Batanes claim was made immediately after Japan and the Philippines conducted bilateral maritime delimitation negotiations involving the waters east of Taiwan without China’s participation. It was done amid the aggressive rollout of the US’s First Island Chain strategy, which requires a string of US bases and deployment of troops from Japan to the Philippines down to North Borneo to contain China.
Bayan urgently calls for deescalation and demilitarization of the WPS and the Pacific. We urge fellow Filipinos to reject the spurious claims of so-called Chinese scholars while being wary of narratives that justify expanded US military presence in the country as parroted by Pres. Marcos and his subordinates.
It is hypocritical for Marcos and his officials to hype the false Batanes claim while allowing the US to conduct live fire drills and build military facilities on the island. If they are really concerned about our sovereignty, they should also pull out all US bases, troops and weapons from our territory.
We call on our people to be resolute in asserting an independent foreign policy that upholds and defends Philippine sovereignty, territory, maritime rights and the right to self-determination against all forms of foreign domination and intervention.