ITBAYAT, BATANES — Batanes Gov. Ronald Aguto Jr. and Itbayat Mayor Joseph Cultura dismissed as baseless claims by Chinese scholars that the province belongs to China, reaffirming that Batanes has long been under Philippine sovereignty.
In a statement on Friday, Aguto rejected the purported findings of the Chinese scholars, stressing that the province has long been under Philippine sovereignty.
“We recently commemorated the 243rd Founding Anniversary of Batanes. We celebrated not only the establishment of our civil and religious government but also more than two centuries of our enduring history as an integral part of the Republic of the Philippines,” Aguto said.
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“Philippine sovereignty over Batanes is unequivocal; it has never been in doubt nor is it open to question,” he added.
Batanes, the country’s northernmost and least populous province, is part of the Cagayan Valley region and had a population of 18,937 as of the 2024 census.
For Cultura, a retired Philippine Navy captain, “there’s no truth” to the claim of Chinese scholars as he dismissed the assertion that Batanes belongs to China because it was supposedly an extension of Taiwan.
Expansionist policy
In an interview, Cultura said such a claim stems from Beijing’s “expansionist policy and bully posturing,” not historical fact.
“I saw the news. We should not even respond to the academic paper because we know this is plain propaganda,” Cultura said.
He accused the unnamed scholars of using state-funded research to support China’s territorial claims.
“They secure Chinese state funds to produce scholarly materials that perpetuate their claims to additional territory, which will eventually find their way into their school curriculum for indoctrination,” Cultura said.
According to the mayor, the theory may have been prompted by the recent reenactment of an ancient maritime voyage by 20 members of the indigenous Tao people of Lanyu (Orchid Island) in southern Taiwan. On June 16, the group paddled a traditional wooden canoe across the Bashi Channel to Batanes, retracing the sea routes navigated by their ancestors some 300 years ago.
READ: More PH voices scoff at China scholars’ claim on Batanes
Coinciding with the arrival of the Tao voyagers, Chinese Ambassador Huang Xilian and Li Xiaoyan, consul and head of the Chinese Consulate in Laoag, also visited Batanes.
Cultural exchange
Cultura said Chinese authorities appeared to be reading too much into the cultural exchange, which was intended to revive the centuries-old maritime links between the Tao people of Lanyu and the Ivatan people of Batanes, who share linguistic, cultural, and ancestral ties.
“If this is the basis of their claim, they got it all backwards,” Cultura said.
“True, we have Austronesian roots and ancestry. But it was the people of Batanes, particularly Itbayat, who left Batanes and settled in Lanyu Island to escape the strict discipline and persecution of the Spanish friars—not the other way around,” he added. explaining the similarities between Ivatan and Tao culture.
Military officials also rejected the Chinese scholars’ assertions.
Speaking during the June 10 oath-taking and fellowship of the 5th Infantry Division Press Corps at Camp Melchor dela Cruz in Gamu, Isabela, Brig. Gen. Romualdo Raymund Landingin, assistant commander of the Army’s 5th Infantry Division, said Philippine sovereignty over Batanes is “settled and not up for debate.”
Landingin said the Philippine government had formally rejected the “baseless claims” raised by Chinese academics during a symposium in June 2026.
Earlier, Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro described the scholars’ assertions as “ludicrous,” saying they reflect Beijing’s broader geopolitical ambitions in the Pacific. /das
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