Free Territory of Freedomland

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

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

In 1947, it was reported that Captain Filemon Cloma 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 Cloma and brother Tomas Cloma consulted the maps for the islands, but didn't find maps containing the islands. Tomas Cloma hoped to set up a fish cannery [4][7] (and mine the guano[7]- interestingly, Japan also wanted to use the area for guano back around 1920 [8]), and thus funded an expedition led by Filemon and crew to explore the islands [4].

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

On March 15, 1956, Filemon Cloma, funded by Tomas Cloma, landed on the islands with a group of men [7].

On May 11, 1956, funded by Tomás Cloma Sr., 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]

On May 15, 1956, Tomas Cloma 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]. Tomas Cloma asserted that the territory was without owner, since Japan renounced ownership in the San Francisco Peace Conference in 1951 [2].

On May 21, 1956, Tomas Cloma 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. Tomas Cloma 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 [13].

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 Bei Zi Reef in the South China Sea [14][15][16] (called North Danger Reef in [17]), two nationalist Chinese ships (called Taiwanese ships in [18][17][19])- namely, the Ning Yuan (寧遠) flotilla of the Republic of China Navy(ROC)[14], containing ROC 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]) and aboard (the naval vessel Tai He [15][16]) for a conference. A 4-hour [7] discussion over ownership ensued, during which Cloma was below deck, unaware that a boarding party had searched his vessel and confiscated all arms/ammunition[20][19][9][7][3], maps and documents. Captain Cloma protested but was treated discourteously, interrogated [15], and kept under detention until allowed to rejoin his boat. The next day he was again invited aboard the Chinese ship. There, even under threat to their lives, Cloma and his officers refused[9][10] to recognize that Freedomland was Chinese territory and to sign a statement[18][15][16][19][3] (signed under duress, according to Filemon Cloma's son [7][17][3]) that they would leave Freedomland and never come back. Cloma was forced to surrender arms for which he was given a receipt, whereupon the Chinese ship left Ciriaco. Captain Cloma found that the houses on Ciriaco and Irenea had been removed, and the buildings on Abad Santos Island burned down."[9][7] (Quotation marks directly above indicated heavy paraphrasing from [9].)

After the Chinese government's building burning and confiscation of property, Tomas and Filemon Cloma agitated for the Government of the Philippines to support their claims to Freedomland [9][10][20][21][8].

In 1972, Tomas Cloma was jailed by Philippine President Ferdinand E. Marcos for four months for "impersonating a military officer by being called an "admiral".[22] In August 1974, Tomas Cloma changed the name of the country from Freedomland to Colonia. At that same time, he retired as titular head of state in favor of John de Mariveles.[23]

In December 1974, Tomas Cloma 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.[24][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.[28]

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.[28]

In 2014 The Philippines sought adjudication of a territorial dispute with China at the International Court of Arbitration.[29] In its pleadings, the Philippines abandoned efforts to assert succession to the Cloma Claim, and instead asserted a 200-mile territorial claim under EEZ Law of the Sea. As a consequence, Colonia became the only successor claimant to the Cloma territory.[30]

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.[31]

• 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