Sovereignty marker put up in Tawi-Tawi

MANILA, Philippines — The Armed Forces of the Philippines has put up a “sovereignty marker” on an island in Tawi-Tawi province to “strengthen the country’s sovereign rights over its southernmost frontier.”

The marker was put up on March 7 on Panggungan Island, part of Barangay Datu Baguinda Puti in Sitangka town, in the periphery of the Celebes Sea bordering with Malaysia.

Brig. Gen. Romeo Racadio, commander of the 2nd Marine Brigade and head of the AFP’s Joint Task Force Tawi-Tawi, said putting up of the landmark was one of the significant milestones in the province’s history, as it formally established its solid assertion of the area located at the southernmost frontier of the country’s archipelago.

“Establishing a sovereignty marker in the island is a way of exercising the state’s power in demonstrating its lawful ownership to its territory and all the inhabitants living in the said island,” he said in a statement on Friday. —Dexter Cabalza

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