Got a tip? Send it to us at manila@coconuts.co.
Will the map prove our claim?
“The Philippine government will be submitting to the United Nations Tribunal on the Law of the Sea in The Hague this week an almost 300-year-old map of the Philippines showing the disputed Scarborough Shoal being part of Philippine territory as far back as three centuries ago,” reports Ellen T. Tordesillas of the VERA Files via InterAksyon.com.
The report noted: “The map debunks the so-called nine-dash-line China has been using as proof of its claim over the South China Sea. It also locates Scarborough shoal, then known as “Panacot,” also called “Panatag” by Filipinos, off the shores of Luzon, then known as Nueva Castilla. Scarborough shoal has been a source of conflict between the Philippines and China.”
The map was obtained by Filipino businessman Mel Velarde from a Sotheby’s auction in London for GBP£170,500 (US$266,869.46 or PHP12,014,463.09).
The Jesuit priest Pedro Murillo Velarde had the map published in Manila in 1734. It was among the possessions of the current Duke of Northumberland, Ralph George Algernon Percy, who decided to auction it off (along with other properties) after a devastating flood hit Northumberland County in April 2012.
Velarde the businessman doesn’t know yet if he is related to the Velarde Jesuit priest.
Photo: Detail from Sotheby’s flyer