Manila, July 10 -- The National Historical Commission of the Philippines (NHCP) refuted and condemned on Friday the recent claims of some scholars that Batanes apparently belongs to China.

The claim was reportedly made by researchers during a symposium at the Jinan University last June 30.

Among the claims was that the Batanes Islands constitute a natural geographic extension of Taiwan, were under the jurisdiction of Taiwan Prefecture during the Ming and Qing Dynasties, and form a natural geographic extension of the Taiwan archipelago.

"Like a post that circulated in social media in 2025 over Palawan, these 'claims' have no rational basis in substantive research and operate from evident bad faith," the NHCP, the national agency mandat...