ASEAN Beat | Security | Southeast Asia

Philippine Lawmaker Plants National Flag on Disputed South China Sea Sandbar

According to the activist Atin Ito coalition, the early morning visit to Sandy Cay succeeded despite a “heavy Chinese presence” in the area.

Philippine lawmaker Dadah Kiram Ismula and an Atin Ito volunteer pose for a photo after planting the Philippine and Atin Ito flags on Sandy Cay in the South China Sea, May 4, 2026.

A Philippine lawmaker yesterday planted the nation’s flag on a contested feature in the South China Sea, in a “peaceful but firm act of defiance against China’s continuing aggression” in the area.

Accompanied by a team of volunteers, Rep. Dadah Kiram Ismula of the activist Atin Ito Coalition traveled in a rubber dinghy from Thitu (Pag-asa) Island, the largest occupied Philippine feature in the South China Sea, to Sandy Cay, where she planted the flag early yesterday, the group said in a statement.

“Despite the heavy Chinese presence in the area, the team reached Pag-asa Cay 2 and raised the flag, reporting that they slipped past multiple Chinese vessels monitoring nearby waters,” it stated, using Manila’s name for the uninhabited sandbar.

“Our message is clear,” the statement quoted Ismula as saying. “The West Philippine Sea is ours. No amount of intimidation can erase that fact.”

The group released a video of the mission to Sandy Cay, which lies around three kilometers from Thitu Island, well within the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone (EEZ). “West Philippine Sea” is the Philippines’ official term for its claimed areas of the South China Sea, which China claims under its maximalist “nine-dash line.”

Formed in 2023, the Atin Ito Coalition – the phrase means “It Is Ours” in Tagalog – is a civilian-led coalition that has conducted a number of advocacy missions to assert Philippine sovereignty over its portion of the South China Sea.

The visit to Sandy Cay was the attention-grabbing highlight of the group’s fourth mission in the region, which runs from April 30 to May 5. Like the earlier missions, this also included the delivery of fuel, food, and medicines, and other forms of support to Philippine-occupied features, including Thitu Island.

After the mission to Sandy Cay, Ismula also rode a jet ski through the waters off the island, the coalition said in a separate statement, describing it as a “symbolic action” to assert the country’s “sovereign rights and........

© The Diplomat