Batanes Rep. Ciriaco Gato Jr. on Friday strongly rejected claims raised in a China-based academic symposium that Batanes is supposedly part of China because it is a “natural geographical extension of Taiwan.”
Gato said Batanes is and will remain a province of the Republic of the Philippines, stressing that the identity and allegiance of the Ivatan people are not open to question.
“Batanes is a province of the Republic of the Philippines. The Ivatans are Filipinos,” Gato said in a statement.
“These are enduring truths established by history, affirmed by our Constitution and laws, and embodied in the identity and collective experience of our people,” he added.
The lawmaker said any attempt to question Philippine sovereignty over Batanes must be treated with utmost seriousness.
“We treat any insinuation that seeks to question or undermine the absolute sovereignty of the Republic of the Philippines over our islands with utmost gravity,” Gato said.
He said the claim was not merely a geopolitical provocation, but an affront to the identity of the Ivatan people.
“Any challenge to our status is not merely a geopolitical provocation; it is an affront to our identity that we will not tolerate,” he said.
Gato reaffirmed the allegiance of Batanes and its people to the Philippines.
“We have always known who we are. Our allegiance is to the Republic of the Philippines—now and always,” he said.
The statement came after the Armed Forces of the Philippines also rejected the China-linked claim as baseless disinformation meant to undermine Philippine sovereignty and promote false historical and legal narratives.
Batanes is the country’s northernmost province and occupies a strategic location between mainland Luzon and Taiwan.