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Kalayaan is a fifth class municipality in the Philippine province of Palawan in the Spratly archipelago, situated within the South China Sea. Kalayaan municipality, which includes the Pagasa (Thitu) island, is 280 nautical miles northwest of Puerto Princessa (Palawan) and 579 miles southwest of Metro Manila. According to the 2010 census,〔 it has a population of 222 people consisting of a single barangay located on Pag-asa Island, which also serves as the seat of the municipal government. It is the smallest municipality in the Philippines. Kalayaan's annual budget is 47 million pesos (about $1.1 million). Pag-asa Island has a dilapidated airstrip, a 5-bed lying-in clinic, and a small elementary school.〔 Once a strictly a military installation, Pag-asa was opened to civilian settlement in 2002.〔Angelina G. Goloy ("Promise of Pag-asa" ), ''Manila Standard'', Manila, 22 August 2005. Retrieved on 10 October 2005.〕 ==History== There are records of the island having been inhabited, at various times in history, by the Chinese and by people from the Champa Kingdom of Vietnam, and during the second world war, French Indochina and Imperial Japanese troops. However, there were no large settlements on these islands till 1956, when Filipino lawyer / businessman / adventurer / fishing magnate Tomas Cloma decided to "claim" a part of Spratly islands as his own, naming it the "Free Territory of Freedomland". In 1946, Vice President Elpidio Quirino reiterated the Southern Islands, the forerunner name for Kalayaan, as part of the Philippines. In 1947, Tomas Cloma "discovered" a group of several uninhabited and unoccupied islands/islets in the vastness of the Luzon Sea. On May 11, 1956, together with forty men, Tomas Cloma took formal possession of the islands, lying some 380 miles west of the southern end of Palawan and named them the "Free Territory of Freedomland". Four days later Cloma issued and posted copies of his "Notice to the Whole World" on each of the islands as "a decisive manifestation of unwavering claim over the territory". On May 31, 1956, Cloma declared the establishment of the Free Territory of Freedomland, ten days after he sent his second representation to the Secretary of Foreign Affairs, informing the latter that the territory claimed was named "Freedomland". On July 6, 1956, Cloma declared to the whole world his claim and the establishment of a separate government for the "Free Territory of Freedomland" with its capital on Flat Island (Patag Island). His declaration was met with violent and unfriendly reactions from several neighboring countries especially the Republic of China (ROC; on Taiwan since 1949) when on September 24, 1956 it effectively garrisoned the nearby island of Itu Aba and intercepted Cloma's men and vessels found within its immediate waters. In 1974, Cloma ceded his rights over the islands for one peso, after being imprisoned by Ferdinand Marcos. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Kalayaan, Palawan」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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