Unthinkable to surrender the Kalayaan Islands to China

I thought I was hearing the Chinese ambassador suggesting that the Philippines should surrender the Kalayaan Island Group to Beijing, only to realize that it was a duly elected senator of the Republic debating with Senator Kiko Pangilinan and with impertinent audacity, made that despicable proposal.

It is totally unexpected, if not unthinkable and entirely out of bounds, for a senator of the Republic to even think of giving up an inch of our national territory, not to mention the entire KIG including the municipality of Kalayaan.  This is our land where the Republic of the Philippines has an unassailable right of ownership and possession, with a functioning government and a community of Filipino citizens exercising domain over a piece of our national territory.

If the Lower House would even suspend a member of that chamber for some silly social media posts, why would not any honorable member of the august Senate file an ethics complaint against that senator who was arguing ad nauseam to defend the position of the Chinese government and thereby giving aid and comfort to a bully state which keeps on insulting our national dignity, and never cease to intrude into our territorial domain.

That senator, who reportedly claimed that he is the male version of the one and only Miriam Defensor Santiago, should red again Article One of the Philippine Constitution: "The national territory comprises the Philippine archipelago, with all the islands and waters embraced therein and all other territories over which the Philippines has sovereignty or jurisdiction" We have jurisdiction and sovereignty over the Kalayaan ever since the Philippines assumed sovereignty thereof more than fifty years ago.

That member of the Senate, who always talks as if he knows everything, should be reminded that our national territory, as explicitly declared in the first article of our fundamental law is: "consisting of its terrestrial, fluvial. and aerial domains, including its territorial sea, the seabed, the subsoil, the insular shelves, and other submarine areas.". As a brilliant lawyer, that senator should be the last person to tell us to give up the Kalayaan to Beijing supposedly because it is beyond our exclusive maritime zone. My God.

Our definition of national territory, next to the Preamble of our Constitution proclaims that "The waters around, between and connecting the islands of the Archipelago regardless of their breadth and dimensions form part of the internal waters of the Philippines." I would have easily understood and accepted if such a line of reasoning emanated from one of my junior and senior students in the college of law where I am teaching. But coming from a parliamentarian, I could not, for the life of me, ever imagine such line of thoughts to be spoken in the august halls of the Philippine Senate.

I could not imagine if those words were spoken in the presence of Senators Claro M. Recto, Lorenzo Tanada, Jose P. Laurel, Jose W. Diokno, Jovito Salonga, Ninoy Aquino or Francisco Soc Rodrigo. He could have heard mouthfuls of expressions of extreme outrage and denunciation. I would think that such a senator would receive a sharp admonition from  Palawan's son Ramon Mitra and of course, Miriam Defensor Santiago herself.

All nations in Asia and the Pacific support the Philippines and have rejected the fictional China's Nine Dash Line which does not have any historic and long-term basis. Such imaginary nine dashes which form a broken U shape overlap with the exclusive economic zones of the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei and Vietnam have been rejected by Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Australia and New Zealand.

Above all, the Philippines has a Mutual Defense Treaty with the US and also is being supported by NATO member nations. That senator should retract his statement before the Senate. His position has already been rendered invalid by The Hague-based Permanent Court of Arbitration. The arbitral award is final and binding.

What matters most is to remind all members of the Senate and the House what they already know for the longest time that sovereignty and territorial integrity is non-negotiable. Not even the President of the Philippines can give up even an inch of our territory. Even a freshman in the college of law would feel perplexed, astounded and exasperated by that proposal to give up Kalayaan to Beijing.

Those outrageous words should be stricken off the record of the Philippine Senate. Mahiya naman sila.