Visiting Pag-Asa: A Look Into the Life on the Republic’s Western Frontier

Chinese Coast Guard personnel threatening a Philippine Navy sailor with an axe during the June 2024 Ayungin Shoal Incident. During the confrontation Philippine Navy diver, Jeffrey Facundo, lost his right thumb. | Photo: AFP

August 15, 2026 – North Caloocan City, NCR, Philippines

Article by Lance Martin G. Nolasco

Last June 15, 2026, the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), as part of its Communication Plan “Mulat”, launched the Journey To Hope Essay Writing Competition as part of Project Hopecaster to commemorate the 10 year anniversary of the 2016 South China Sea Arbitration. Journey To Hope gave no luxurious prize, rather it gave a once in a lifetime experience for youth residing in the mainland. The prize was a trip and an immersion on the country's westernmost territory, Pag-Asa Island. Major Rafael Nable, one of the heads of the Journey to Hope competition, elaborated that the competition was not merely founded to celebrate the 10 years since the Arbitral Ruling but rather it was conducted to fulfill a simple yet noble goal: that is to civilianize the issue in the West Philippine Sea and allow for more people to see first hand the life out in the Republic’s western frontier.

If there was anything that the past few years had taught residents of the Philippine mainland islands anything about the West Philippine Sea (WPS), particularly the youth, that is constant conflict. Our information and as such our perceptions on the West Philippine Sea is found only in the turbulent news reports originating from that body of water. Though Marcos Jr.’s transparency initiative on the West Philippine Sea exposed the aggression that the People’s Republic of China resorts to in order to reinforce its baseless expansionism in the Indo-Pacific, thus surely giving the archipelagic Republic a grand propaganda boost that isn’t regurgitated A.I slop, it must be known that the West Philippine Sea is not merely vignettes of Filipino sailors getting their fingers chopped off nor is it Chinese vessels ramming, water cannoning, and harassing Philippine ships. It is easy to get lost in the narrative that the West Philippine Sea is an ongoing dispute and as such a conflict.

However, this dispute has been solved. A decade ago, the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) spoke about the baselessness of the PRC’s 9-Dash Line Claim. The Hague had spoken, and it was final, the West Philippine Sea is ours. So we must look at it like it is ours, because like how we live in the mainland's islands, people live out there in the West Philippine Sea.

This is where the island of Pag-Asa comes in. The largest island amidst the Kalayaan Island Group (KIG) and the seat of the Municipality of Palawan, Pag-Asa Island is a remote island with a small population of just over 400 individuals. It stands most resiliently amidst the West Philippine Sea, braving typhoons but above all standing steadfastly amidst a persistent foreign blockade and the occupation of the waters surrounding it. However, that struggle is not the entire picture as Pag-Asa island is not merely a remote island who happens to have residents, it is a thriving community.

An aerial shot of Pag-Asa Island showing the airstrip and Naval Station Emilio Liwanag as well as the coastal communities present on the island. | Photo: Gabriel Dominguez, The Japan Times

Looking beyond the airbase which takes up half of the 37 hectare island, there exists a school, small family owned sari-sari stores, a bakery, a makeshift basketball court in the street, a billiard hall, a karaoke bar, and even emergency services. Life there is austere and one of a kind indeed, with unique challenges found only for its citizens, yet people there live normal happy lives. Children play in the streets and go to school, young adults play basketball and pool in their spare time. They even compete in the Palarong Pambansa as representatives of the Province of Palawan. These people live just like you and me.

Locals of Pag-Asa Island | Photo: Rodolfo Santiago Gallinero III, Polytechnic University of the Philippines - Sto. Tomas Campus

Funnily enough, life out there takes me back to a simpler time out in the outskirts of rural pre-2016 North Caloocan, back when the lands were not yet leased to warehouses and the corporations which run them, a time when widespread urbanization was still a dream. Pag-Asa Island and the West Philippine Sea is not a subject for dispute or conflict, for to the people that live there, Pag-Asa Island and the West Philippine Sea is home, it is where they live for decades before and decades more to come and it is where they find their livelihoods in.

To know the West Philippine Sea, to appreciate it in all of its glory, and to savor all that it has for the Filipino people, we must not merely subject ourselves at the blockade and the occupation of our waters, but also immerse our minds at the story of the people who live among our sovereign seas and live off of them. The West Philippine Sea is not a story of disputes over water, it is a story of people and the waters and island which they call home.

So knowing this, gives us all the more reason to defend it. Our fight is not merely the defense of waters and small islands, reefs, and shoals. Defending the West Philippine Sea is upholding our seas, our rights, and our future- but it is also defending our countrymen who live there and have chosen to live there as well as those who depend on our waters, wherever they may be.

To defend what is ours and to hold it to value does not have a political color, allegiance, nor a sectarian affiliation. Filipinos should stand united for the sake of other Filipinos and the land and water for Filipinos.