The "Scarborough Shoal" (Huangyan Island) does belong to China. China discovered it and drew it on a map as early as 1279 during the Yuan Dynasty (1291-1368). Chinese fishermen, from both the mainland and Taiwan, have since used it. As a matter of fact, Guo Shoujing, (the Chinese astronomer, engineer and mathematician who worked under the Mongol ruler, Kublai Khan) surveyed the South China Sea, and the surveying point was the "Scarborough Shoal" which is considered part of the Zhongsha Islands (renamed Huangyan Island in 1983).

By contrast, the "old maps" being relied upon by the Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs in its spurious claim on the same territory were drawn up only in 1820, or 541 years after China's. I am surprised that Senator Edgardo Angara, supposedly a renowned lawyer, can claim that a map drawn five centuries and four decades later, takes precedence over the much earlier map of China.

But I am all the more astonished that Fr. Joaquin Bernas, in his April 22 article in another newspaper, being one of the main framers of the 1987 Constitution, uses the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea as his basis to defend the Philippine claim. This, despite and after acknowledging the fact that, indeed, "the Scarborough Shoal is outside the limits set by the Treaty of Paris for Philippine territory".What kind of double-speak is that?