It’s high time to make a respectable stand. It’s just proper to make a vibrant move to possess, use or utilize our islands along Ayungin Shoal which is just a boat ride away from Palawan and within our exclusive economic zone in West Philippine Sea. It’s a pity that we only use a portion of the islands as military fortress with BRP Sierra Madre, a decrepit, corroded, filthy looking junk as command post! The station has no installed digital equipment, no communication tower and worst, unarmed except for a row of sharpened bamboo poles reserved for tribal self-defense. My heart bleeds on those soldiers assigned in the area. They do not deserve to be sitting ducks on any potential aggression from pirates or from epidemics that would break loose as a consequence of tetanus.
In 1994 when I was designated as Superintendent of Iwahig Penal Colony, I had this delightful chance to oversee the boundary of the entire prison reservation from the air. Flying in a military helicopter I noticed the group of isles west of Palawan too, a few kilometers from Puerto Princesa City, northwest of Iwahig. The chopper pilot of then Wescom chief General Charlie Taniega said that those were the Spratly Islands. It was not yet a contentious land mass then. As soon as we landed on Wescom ground, I hurriedly took an audience with the General and suggested that I am interested in proposing to the prison leadership the use of one of the islands as auxiliary penal reservation, to guard it also against marauding brigands or squatters from exploring marine resources of nearby coral reefs.
I received a passive yet supportive nod and went ahead proposing the same to my supervisor in central office. I received a respectful smile from my boss but that was all there is to it. Nothing followed. In 2007, when I was assigned as Superintendent of Davao Prison and on weekends dabbling as radio commentator over Radyo Rapido 1017 kh over AM Band, I used the broadcast medium to reiterate a call for authorities to tap the Spratly Islands as a satellite penal farm. The islands on West Philippine Sea had already been a hot subject of diplomatic back-channeling at that time because a big portion of the area was still uninhabited. Nonetheless, thinking it was not yet late to take action I formally submitted a proposal to my superior, who in turn submitted it to the Department of Justice. Thereupon, I received a short statement from DOJ authorities: “Forget it, the Chinese might get angry!”
I was even compelled by my immediate supervisor to make myself look stupid for pursuing the idea so that I will not get the ire of some DOJ functionaries!
Well, it was depressing to hear the negative response of my superiors because from where I was, I thought that Spratly Islands is ours. My conscience was appeased when I learned that even the United Nations Convention on Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) said that the debated Spratly Islands belong to the Philippines.
Anyway, as I began my thesis in this peroration, may I reiterate my proposal once again to make Spratlys, specifically Kalayaan Island or its immediate environ a subject of a study on the possibility of converting it into a satellite penal colony.
Come on; let’s utilize the area to our advantage instead of pouting in one corner seeking the heavens for luck to make the group of islands disappear from the bucket list of other countries!
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