Crime-free Kalayaan Island gets patrol jeep

MANILA, Philippines - Thirty-seven years after it was established as a municipality of Palawan, Kalayaan Island – the center of a maritime and territorial row with China – has been issued a patrol jeep.

Kalayaan Mayor Eugenio Bito-onon Jr. said the jeep was among the vehicles being distributed by the Philippine National Police, through the Department of the Interior and Local Government, to police stations nationwide.

“It was turned over yesterday,” Bito-onon said.

He said the patrol jeep would also be used to tour visitors around the island.

A crime-free town, only two policemen are manning the police station in Kalayaan Island on rotation. There are only 300 residents, including children, in the island.

The rest of the policemen are stationed in their satellite office in Puerto Princesa City.

Aside from a police station, the island town, which used to be a military garrison, has an elementary school, clinic, weather station and other support facilities.

A lone military truck provided by the Western Command is being used to transport visitors to the island town.

Bito-onon said the provincial government would ship the police vehicle to Puerto Princesa to be used by the Kalayaan satellite police office while awaiting transfer to the island town.

Approximately 280 nautical miles from mainland Palawan, Kalayaan Island is among the seven areas under control of the Philippines in the Spratlys archipelago, a chain of islets, reefs, atolls and sandbars in the West Philippines Sea.

Only 12 nautical miles from the island town is Zamora (Subi) Reef, now teeming with infrastructure development by China, including a 3,000-meter airfield and a modern port.

China has also built man-made islands in the disputed archipelago in Kagitingan (Fiery Cross) Reef, where it is also establishing naval and air bases.