Philippines opens school on disputed South China Sea island

Mayor Eugenio Bito-onon said on Sunday that the school was opened June 15 without fanfare to help a poor Filipino community on the island in the Spratly archipelago and not antagonize rival claimants.

Five students were welcomed by their teacher in a classroom filled with crayons, pencils, coloring books and a blackboard, Bito-onon said. A Philippine flag fluttered in the breeze in the schoolyard on the 37-hectare (91-acre) island, which the Philippines calls Pag-asa -- or “hope” in Tagalog.

“We're trying to come up with as normal a community as possible and this is one important step,” Bito-onon said by telephone. “The kids were very excited. They grabbed their new schoolbags and prodded their parents to bring them to class early.”

He said older children could also be accommodated in the school if he can get more government funding. Fifteen children from the island currently attend elementary school on the mainland and stay with relatives there, he said.

Filipino troops guard Pag-asa, the largest of nine islands, sandbars and reefs held by the Philippines under a municipality led by Bito-onon. The Philippine government established the far-flung municipality in 1978 to reinforce its claim to the Spratly archipelago.

More than a dozen families have been encouraged by the government to live on the tadpole-shaped island 480 kilometers (300 miles) off southwestern Palawan province by offering them free food, shelter, electricity, water and now, education.

China, Taiwan, Brunei, Malaysia and Vietnam also claim the mostly barren Spratlys, which are believed to be rich in oil and gas and are near one of the world's busiest sea lanes.