Arbitration panel said they aren’t islands, just rocks: Our Pag-asa Island, left; right, Taiwan’s Taiping. Photo from Asian Maritime Transparency Initiative

The intention of such a claim was that this would invalidate China’s occupation and ownership of these areas, first since Scarborough Shoal, just 130 nautical miles from our mainland, is clearly within our exclusive economic zone (EEZ). Two of the Spratly reefs held by China (Mischief Reef and Second Thomas Shoal) are within our EEZ and within our Kalayaan Island Group (KIG), which Marcos declared as part of our sovereign territory under his Presidential Decree 1591 of 1978. Five reefs aren’t within our EEZ, but are within the KIG: Fiery Cross, Subi, McKeenan, Johnson and Cuarteron.

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