Free Territory of Freedomland

While China, Japan, the Philippines, and many other nations have been in the South China Sea for many centuries, this article discusses Tomás Cloma Sr.'s claim to Freedomland for the Philippines.

In January 1935, the Committee of Reviewing Water and Land Maps of the Republic of China published both Chinese names and English names of 132 insular features in the South China Sea.[1]

In 1947, it was reported that Captain Filemon Cloma (Tomás Cloma Sr.'s brother) was fishing off Palawan[2][3][4][5] when Typhoon Jennie forced him to seek shelter, leading his group of fishing vessels west of Palawan, into the Spratlys.[6] The group discovered a vast frontier which served as good fishing grounds.[4][5] Filemon and his brother Tomás consulted their maps, but could not find the islands on them. Tomás Cloma Sr. hoped to set up a fish cannery[4][7] and mine for guano.[7] Japan had considered the area a potential source for extracting guano since the 1920s[8] and agreed to fund an expedition led by Filemon and his crew to explore the islands.[4]

In 1950, Philippine President Elpidio Quirino said that "as long as Taiwan held the Spratlys, the Philippines would not press its own claim".[1]

On March 15, 1956, Filemon Cloma, funded by his brother, landed on the islands with a group of men.[7] On May 11, 1956, Filemon Cloma led 40 men in taking formal possession of the islands,[9][10] lying some 380 miles (612 km) west of the southern end of Palawan and named them Freedomland.[1] Tomás Cloma Sr. then issued his "Notice to the Whole World."[11] Filemon Cloma led a 40-man Filipino crew in hoisting a Filipino flag on one of the islands of Freedomland, and posted copies of that notice, along with possession notices on each of the islands[12][2]- 53 islands and islets with a total area of 64,976 square miles.[12][2][7] Tomás Cloma Sr. asserted that the territory was without owner, since Japan renounced ownership in the San Francisco Peace Conference in 1951.[2]

On May 21, 1956, Tomás Cloma Sr. declared the establishment of the Free Territory of Freedomland.[7] Ten days later, he sent his second representation to the Secretary of Foreign Affairs informing the latter that the territory claimed was named Freedomland. Tomás Cloma Sr. appointed a government to Freedomland, including government personnel Secretary of State: Manuel Aguilar; Minister of Foreign Affairs: Donald Trayler; Minister of Transportation: Virgilio G. Cloma; Minister of Maritime Affairs: Filemon Cloma; Minister of Commerce: Rizal Cloma; Minister of Justice: Santiago Pastor, Jr.; and Finance Minister: Teodora Agbayani.

On July 6, 1956, Cloma declared to the world his claim and establishment of a separate government with its capital on Flat Island (also known as Patag Island).

On October 1, 1956, at North Danger Reef[13] in the South China Sea,[14][15][16] two Taiwanese ships-[17][18] namely, the Ning Yuan (寧遠) flotilla of the Taiwanese Navy,[14] containing naval vessels Taihe and Yongshun-[15][16] approached Filemon Cloma's expedition with the boat PMI-IV[10][7][12][3] and invited Captain Cloma (and Chief Engineer Benito Danseco, and other crew members[15][16]) aboard [the naval vessel Tai He[15][16]] for a conference.[19]

After the Taiwanese government's building burning and confiscation of property, Tomás and Filemon Cloma agitated for the Government of the Philippines to support their claims to Freedomland.[9][10][19][20][8]

In 1972, Tomás Cloma Sr. was jailed by Philippine President Ferdinand E. Marcos for four months for "impersonating a military officer by being called an "admiral".[21] In August 1974, Tomás Cloma Sr. and the Supreme Council of Freedomland drafted a new Constitution, declaring the country to be a Principality and encouraging its colonization. New citizens were naturalised, and some of them elected to the Supreme Council, John de Mariveles among them. In August, Cloma changed the name of the country from Freedomland to Colonia and retired as titular head of state in favor of John de Mariveles with the title of Prince.[22]

In December 1974, Tomás Cloma Sr. was arrested and forced to sign a document to convey to the Philippines whatever rights he might have had in the territory for one peso.[23][10] There are Philippine claims that they acquired the territory through that document.

In 1978, the Philippine president Ferdinand Marcos issued Presidential Decree No. 1596 to include the majority of the Spratly Islands as being Philippine territory.[1][10]

Cloma introduced a distinction between his Freedomland and the Spratlys further west. This distinction later became part of the Philippines' foreign policy. This distinction was never fully clarified. It seems that Freedomland encompasses most of what others call the Spratly Islands, but not Spratly Island itself, nor the banks and reefs lying to the west of it.[20]

Cloma's declaration was met with hostile reactions from several neighboring countries, especially Taiwan. On September 24, 1956, Taiwan reoccupied nearby Itu Aba Island (also known as Taiping Island), which it had left in 1950, and intercepted Cloma's men and vessels found within its immediate waters. The People's Republic of China also restated its own claim afterward.[20]

In 2014 The Philippines sought adjudication of a territorial dispute with China at the International Court of Arbitration.[30] In its pleadings, the Philippines abandoned efforts to assert succession to the Cloma Claim, and instead asserted a 200-mile territorial claim as an exclusive economic zone under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. As a consequence, Freedomland (AKA Colonia) became the only successor claimant to the Cloma territory.[31]

The Free Territory of Freedomland should not be confused with the Principality of Freedomland or the Republic of Koneuwe which was set up by a French swindler also in the Spratlys but not on the same islands.[32]

• Principality of Sealand

• Minerva Reefs

• Republic of Morac-Songhrati-Meads

• Baker, John C.; Wiencek, David G. (2002), Cooperative Monitoring in the South China Sea, Greenwood Publishing Group, ISBN 0-275-97182-1
• Kivimäki, Timo (2002), War Or Peace in the South China Sea?, Nordic Institute of Asian Studies (NIAS), ISBN 87-91114-01-2
• Samuels, Marwyn S (1982), Contest for the South China Sea, Methuen, ISBN 0-416-33140-8
• Womack, Brantly (2006), China and Vietnam, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0-521-85320-6