Tomas Cloma (Paperback)

High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! In 1947, Tomas Cloma, a Filipino adventurer and a fishing magnate, discovered several uninhabited and unoccupied group of islands/islets in the South China Sea. This discovery is the principal basis for justification of Spratly islands territorial claims by the Philippines, along with basis from 1982 UNCLOS archipelagic doctrine. . Cloma, owner of a fishing fleet and a private maritime training institute, the PMI Colleges (formerly known as Philippine Maritime Institute), aspired to open a cannery and develop guano deposits in the Spratleys. It was principally for economic reasons, therefore, that he "discovered" and claimed islands in the Spratleys. The Philippines justifies its Spratly Islands claims principally on Cloma's 1947 discoveries.