Foreign Affairs Secretary Enrique Manalo has been presented with an old Philippine map featuring both Scarborough Shoal and the Spratly Islands.
In a post on X on Tuesday, Oct. 1, Manalo said he received retired Supreme Court associate justice Antonio Carpio, who brought to hi, an official Spanish and US map of the Philippines that dated back to 1875.
According to the description of the 1875 Carta General del Archipielago Filipino, the map is the "most complete and detailed official map of Philippine territory during the Spanish regime."
It was published in the Spanish capital of Madrid by the Dirrecion Hidrografia, which was the charting office of the Spanish government.
The map featured depth soundings in the Philippines' many islands, including in Scarborough Shoal and the Spratly, which are both claimed by China to be part of its territory.
But in the 1875 map, both Scarborough and Spratly formed part of the Philippine territory as well as in the earlier 1734 Murillo Velarde map and the 1808 Carta General del Archipielago Filipino, which were also the officials maps of the Philippine territory during the Spanish regime.
"The United States adopted and reissued this 1875 map four times as the official map of Philippine territory during the American regime," the description read.
"In the famous 1928 Islas Palmas arbitration case between the United States and the Netherlands involving the sovereignty of Islas Palmas, the United States stated in its memorandum that this 1875 map is 'both an American official and a Spanish official map,'" it added.