SEN. Rodante Marcoleta rejected claims that he had suggested giving up the Kalayaan Island Group (KIG), saying his remarks during a Commission on Appointments (CA) hearing were taken out of context.
Marcoleta faced backlash after his statements at the CA hearing on Wednesday, February 4, where he questioned whether the Philippines should be prepared to sacrifice lives for KIG, which he noted lies outside the country’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ).
“Ano ba talaga ang ipagpapatayan natin dito? We will offer our lives, including the lives of our children, to die for it, for something that is not even on our EEZ?” Marcoleta said during the hearing.
He added that retaining KIG complicates efforts to clearly define the West Philippine Sea (WPS) under international mapping standards. “Ang gawin natin po, para madali, i-give up natin ‘yong KIG then mako-coordinate na natin lahat,” he said, stressing that KIG is located beyond the Philippines’ EEZ.
Following public criticism, screenshots of Marcoleta’s clarifications surfaced on social media on February 6, where the senator insisted he never called for the surrender of Philippine territory.
“Hindi ko sinabi na ipamigay natin ang KIG,” Marcoleta said. “These people are deliberately abbreviating the context of what I actually discussed at the last CA hearing before the 35 members of the AFP who are to be confirmed on that day.”
Marcoleta explained that his comments were made in the context of international maritime rules, particularly the process of submitting maps to the United Nations for inclusion in the International Hydrographic Organization (IHO).
He said listing the West Philippine Sea in the IHO would require depositing maps with the UN—something he argued could violate the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), since KIG lies beyond the country’s EEZ.
“I informed them that for the WPS to be listed in the IHO, we need to deposit maps to the UN to notify the world that we are usurping part of the high seas including the KIG to the WPS,” Marcoleta said.
“I said that is not possible because that will be violating the UNCLOS, unless of course we give up the KIG to solve the problem,” he added, stressing that the statement was hypothetical and not a policy proposal.
