'Salami slicing': Philippines fires back after Chinese scholars claim Batanes belongs to China
Photo: (left) Francis Tolentino, (center) Batanes Hills, (right) Ciriaco Gato Jr
PHILIPPINES: The Philippines has mounted a unified and forceful rejection of claims made at a Chinese academic symposium asserting that Batanes, the country’s northernmost province, is a natural geographical extension of Taiwan and therefore falls under Chinese sovereignty.
The claims, made by Chinese scholars at a state-sanctioned event, drew immediate condemnation from lawmakers, cabinet officials, and the military on Friday, with officials describing the assertions as baseless, historically dishonest, and a deliberate attempt to destabilise the region, the Philippine News Agency (PNA) reports.
“Batanes is a province of the Republic of the Philippines”
Batanes Lone District Representative Ciriaco Gato Jr. was among the first to respond, saying he viewed the claims with “grave concern” and rejecting them in the clearest possible terms.
“Batanes is a province of the Republic of the Philippines. The Ivatans are Filipinos. These are enduring truths established by history, affirmed by our Constitution and laws, and embodied in the identity and collective experience of our people,” Gato said, quoted by PNA.
He added that any challenge to Philippine sovereignty over Batanes was not merely a geopolitical provocation but “an affront to our identity that we will not tolerate.”
“We have always known who we are. Our allegiance is to the Republic of the Philippines. Now and always,” he said.
Labor Secretary invokes history, law and “effectivités”
Labor Secretary Francis Tolentino, who was the principal author of the Philippine Maritime Zones Law during his time as a senator, described the claims as a case of “lawfare” and “historical revisionism.”
Tolentino pointed to a detailed historical and legal record to support the Philippines’ position. He noted that the 1935 Constitution fixed Batanes’ northern boundary at 21° 25’ North, anchored by the 1898 Treaty of Paris, the 1900 Treaty of Washington, and the 1930 US-UK Convention. He also noted that Spain formally annexed the islands into the Philippine archipelago in 1783 under Governor-General José Basco y Vargas, and that the Ivatan people’s heritage on the islands predates all of these treaties by centuries.
“Sovereignty is proven by effectivités — the continuous, peaceful, effective exercise of state authority. The Philippines has shown this for generations: governance, public services, courts, elections, and investment in the Ivatan people,” Tolentino was quoted as saying by PNA. “These are not theories. They are facts of governance.”
He also warned that academic claims of this nature often precede more aggressive tactics. “We will not allow selective, revisionist interpretations to compromise our territorial integrity,” he added.
AFP: “Salami slicing in the information domain”
The Armed Forces of the Philippines offered perhaps the most pointed observation of what the Chinese claims represent. AFP spokesperson for the West Philippine Sea Rear Admiral Roy Vincent Trinidad described the assertions as “salami slicing in the information domain,” framing the claim as a deliberate, incremental strategy of manufacturing false historical and legal narratives to desensitise the international community and establish a pretext for future expansion.
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“The AFP categorically rejects and dismisses the baseless assertion from a state-sanctioned symposia in China claiming that the northernmost Philippine province of Batanes belongs to Beijing as a ‘geographical extension of Taiwan,’” Trinidad said, according to PNA.
He stressed that Philippine sovereignty over Batanes is “settled, indisputable and non-negotiable,” adding that the AFP cannot and will not let such attempts at foreign malign influence go unchallenged. “Leaving these attacks on our cognitive domain unanswered allows revisionist history to take root,” he warned.
The unified and rapid pushback from Manila across legislative, executive, and military lines suggests that the Philippines has no intention of letting the claims go unanswered, or of allowing academic revisionism to quietly become the foundation for something more.
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