National Security Adviser Eduardo Oban on Friday firmly rejected claims by Chinese scholars that Batanes belongs to China, stressing that the province remains an integral and indivisible part of the Philippines.
In a statement, Oban said the National Security Council views with “serious concern” the assertion made by Chinese scholars during a symposium in Guangzhou on June 30.
While the claim “has no merit,” Oban warned that the government cannot ignore how repeated false narratives could be used to manufacture uncertainty over territory where no ambiguity exists.
“There is no ambiguity on this matter: Batanes is an integral and indivisible part of the Republic of the Philippines,” Oban said.
He said the government will not allow baseless claims to take root and later be used to justify foreign presence, coercion, or any attempt to question Philippine sovereignty.
Oban stressed that Manila “will not allow manufactured history to become manufactured rights, nor a fabricated dispute to take root over what is unquestionably ours.”
“Batanes is, and will always remain, an integral and indivisible part of the Republic of the Philippines. There is no dispute to settle, no claim to negotiate, and no ambiguity to resolve,” he said.