Manila: The Philippines is set to submit to the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea in The Hague this week an almost 300-year-old map showing Scarborough Shoal or Panatag Shoal as part of Philippine territory for three centuries now.
Known as the Murillo Velarde map, the centuries-old document originally called “Carta Hydrographica y Chorographica de las Islas Filipinas” was first published in 1734 in Manila by Fr. Pedro Murillo Velarde, a Jesuit priest. A certified true copy of the map, described as the “Mother of all Philippine maps” and the “Holy Grail of Philippine cartography,” will be presented to President Benigno Aquino III on June 12, which coincides with the Philippines’ celebration of Independence Day, by Filipino businessman Mel Velarde, who bought the map at a Sotheby’s auction for P12 million. —CNN