GOTCHA
By Jarius Bondoc
The Philippine Star
By Jarius Bondoc
The Philippine Star
(Continued from last week)
Engraved in stone in Fuchang in 1136AD during the Song Dynasty, this map of China entitled ‘Hua Yi Tu’ or ‘Map or China and the Barbarian Countries’ was published in the 1900s and is now in the Forest of Stone Steles Museum in Xi’an, China. It shows Hainan Island as the southernmost territory of China.
Thirty-four maps of Asia and the Philippines, made over a span of 304 years, 1636-1940, show Scarborough Shoal as part of the archipelago. This debunks the claim of Beijing’s Communist rulers over the entire South China (West Philippine) Sea by virtue of “ancient historical facts.”
Supreme Court Senior Justice Antonio T. Carpio dug up the 34 old maps. With the first 14 featured last Monday, here are the 20 others:
(15) “Isole Filippine,” by Antonio Zatta, was published 1785 in Venice. It is based on the Murillo map, although there is no such acknowledgment. As in Murillo’s, “Panacot” shoal appears on this map.
(16) “Seconde Partie de la Carte D’Asie” or “Second Part of the Map of Asia,” by Jean Baptiste B. D’Anville, was published 1786 in Paris as part of his Atlas de D’Anville. Jt shows Sumatra, Java, Borneo, Moluccas, Philippines, and Japan. The first part of the Asia map is D’Anville’s 1734 China map. Robert Sayer, Laurie & Whittle, and others reprinted D’Anville’s Atlas. The second part shows “Panacot” shoal. In the reprints of Sayer, and Laurie & Whittle, Panacot is called Scarborough shoal.
(17) “New Chart of the Indian and Pacific Oceans between Cape of Good Hope, New Holland, and Japan,” by Robert Sayer, was published 1787 in London. It shows “Scarboro” shoal.
(18) “Asia and Its Islands According to D’Anville,” by Robert Sayer, was published 1787 in London, based on the 1786 Atlas de D’Anville. It shows “Scarborough” shoal. It declares to include the delineations of all the discoveries of Captain Cook.
(19) A 1792 chart (plano de la navigacion) was published in Madrid by the Direccion de Hidrografica from surveys of the Alessandro Malaspina Expedition. It was the navigation route taken by Malaspina’s ship, Sta. Lucia, when he surveyed what is stated in the map as “Bajo Masinloc o Scarborough.” This is the first time that the shoal is also called “Bajo Masinloc.” On May 4, 1792, the day he surveyed Bajo de Masinloc, Malaspina wrote in his Journal: “On (this shoal) Spanish and foreign ships have been lost.”
(20) “Asia and Its Islands According to D’Anville,” by Robert Laurie and James Whittle, was published 1794 in London. The map declares to incorporate the delineations of all the discoveries made by Captain Cook. It shows “Scarborough” shoal.
(21) “New Chart of the China Sea and Its Several Entrances,” by Robert Laurie and James Whittle, was published 1802 in London. It shows “Scarborough” shoal, with the words “Scarborough Sept. 12th, 1748” and “the Negroes Head.”
(22) “Carta General del Archipielago de Filipinas” was published 1808 in Madrid by the Direccion de Hidrografica from the surveys of the Malaspina Expedition. The shoal is called “Bajo de Masingloc,” but the map adds “o Scarborough.”
(23) “East India Islands on Mercator’s Projection,” by Thomas Kelly, was published between 1814 and 1832 in London. It shows “Scarboro” shoal.
(24) “Asia,” by John Pinkerton, was published 1818 in Philadelphia. It shows “Scarborough” shoal.
(25) “Islas Filipinas,” by Antonio Morata and D. Francisco Coello, was published 1852 in Madrid. It shows “Bajo Masinloc.”
(26) “Carta Esferica del Oceano Indio” was published 1861 and 1865 in Madrid by the Direccion de Hidrografica. It shows “B. Masingloc.”
(27) “Carta General del Archipielago Filipino” was published 1862 in Madrid by the Direccion de Hidrograpfica. It shows “Bajo Masingloc o Scarborough.”
(28) “Plano del Bajo Masingloc,” by E. Wilds, commander of the English warship Swallow, was published 1866.
(29) “Carta General del Oceano Indico” was published 1871 in Madrid by the Seccion de Hidrogrfia. It shows “B. Masingloc.”
(30) “Carta General del Archipielago Filipino” was published 1875 in Madrid by the Direccion de Hidrographia. It shows “B. Masingloc o Scarborough.”
(31) “Carta General del Oceano Pacifico” was published 1897 in Madrid by the Seccion Hidrographia. It shows “B. Masingloc o Scarborough.”
(32) “Islas Filipinas — Mapa General — Observatorio de Manila,” by the Jesuit Jose P. Algue and the US Coast and Geodetic Survey, was published 1899 in Washington, D.C. It shows “B. Masinloc.”
(33) “Map of the Philippine Islands,” by Caspar Hodgson, was published 1908 in Baltimore. It shows “Scarborough” shoal.
(34) “Philippine Islands,” by the US Coast and Geodetic Survey, was published 1933 and reissued 1940 in Washington, D.C. It shows “Scarborough” shoal, with depth soundings.
Justice Carpio concludes the obvious: “The maps consistently show Scarborough, whether named or unnamed, as part of the Philippines. Colonial administrators, navigators, cartographers, historians, seamen, voyagers, and fishermen, through the centuries, have considered Scarborough part of the Philippines.”
By international declaration and practice too, Scarborough was deemed part of the Philippines:
• The 1898 Treaty of Paris drew a rectangle, by which Spain ceded to the United States all its territories within the treaty lines. Scarborough Shoal fell outside. Two years later in the 1900 Treaty of Washington, Spain clarified to have relinquished as well to the US “all title and claim of title, which (Spain) may have had at the time of the conclusion of the Treaty of Peace of Paris, to any and all islands belonging to the Philippine Archipelago, lying outside the lines.” Thus, Spain ceded Scarborough to the U.S. via the Treaty of Washington.
• The US put up military bases in the Philippines under the 1947 Military Bases Agreement. In the 1960s to 1980s US and
Philippine warplanes practiced bombing runs on Scarborough Shoal. Scott Tuason, a Filipino diver and underwater wildlife photographer-author, took pictures of wreckages of dummy ordnances in the waters of Scarborough. Notices to Mariners were issued worldwide, via the UN International Maritime Organization, to keep away from Scarborough during the bombing runs. Neither China nor any other country protested the practices by U.S. and Philippine warplanes. If the Philippines can bomb a shoal repeatedly over decades without protest from neighboring states, it certainly must have sovereignty over such shoal.
(See also Gotcha, 10, 12, 15, and 17 Sept. 2014)
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Replicas of the maps are now on public display. “Historical Truths and Lies: Scarborough Shoal in Ancient Maps” runs till Nov. 14, 2014, at the University of the Philippines, Asian Center, Diliman, Quezon City.
On display too are reproductions of 18 ancient maps of China, 15 by Chinese officials and citizens, three by foreigners. Made over a span of 797 years, 1136-1933, they show Hainan island-province always to have been China’s southernmost boundary. There too are five Constitutions of the Republic of China affirming the maps, and one diplomatic declaration about Hainan as the outer limit. Disproved anew is the Beijing rulers’ claim over the seas from “ancient historical facts.”
The exhibit is a must-see for Filipinos and other freemen, and for Chinese subjects. Not till Beijing’s despots fall will the maps ever be shown together in their true context. They also can be viewed at the Institute of Maritime & Ocean Affairs website: www.imoa.ph.
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Catch Sapol radio show, Saturdays, 8-10 a.m., DWIZ, (882-AM).
Gotcha archives on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Jarius-Bondoc/1376602159218459, or The STAR website http://www.philstar.com/author/Jarius%20Bondoc/GOTCHA
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E-mail: jariusbondoc@gmail.com.
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