The BisayanA.- The recently invented ‘nine-dash line’ map of an Asian superpower that appropriated to itself almost the whole of South China Sea, including portions of the West Philippine Sea, is reminiscent of the Papal Bull of Pope Alexander VI which divided the undiscovered world in half, allocating to Spain the western portion, and to Portugal the eastern portion. But while the latter had for its authority Divine Majesty, the former only based its claim on ‘historical maps’ which Philippine Supreme Court Justice Antonio T. Carpio refuted in an academic lecture entitled “Historical Facts, Historical Lies and Historical Rights in the West Philippine Sea”
The stand of a handful of Philippine marines stationed in the BRP Sierra Madre, a rotting naval vessel grounded in Ayungin Shoal that serves as a permanent Philippine government installation, is not unlike that of the Bisayan hero Lapu-lapu as he stood his ground to protect his coral island domain against a foreign superpower of his time. But whether those marines have the heart and courage of Lapu-lapu to defend their ‘shoal outpost’, should it be forcibly hauled away by a military superpower, remains to be seen.

(Taken from pages 3 – 4. THE BISAYAN)