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Balabac Island

Island in Palawan, Philippines

Summary

Island in Palawan, Philippines

Field	Value
name	Balabac Island
image_name	File:Balabac Island, PH, Sentinel-2.jpg
image_caption	Balabac island satellite image captured by Sentinel-2 in 2016
map	Palawan
map_caption	Location within Palawan
map_relief	yes
coordinates
location	Balabac Strait
archipelago	Balabac Group of Islands
waterbody
elevation_ft	1867
highest_mount	Balabac Peak
country	Philippines
country_admin_divisions_title	Region
country_admin_divisions	Mimaropa
country_admin_divisions_title_1	Province
country_admin_divisions_1	Palawan
country_admin_divisions_title_2	Municipality
country_admin_divisions_2	Balabac
additional_info

Balabac Island is the southernmost island of Palawan province, and therefore the westernmost undisputed island in the Philippines, some 50 km north of Sabah, Malaysia, across the Balabac Strait. Administratively, the island forms the main part of the municipality of Balabac and is divided into 14 barangays (the other six barangays of the municipality are on other nearby islands):

Geography

Environment

Balabac is home to various endemic species, of which the Philippine mouse-deer is an example. The island has been designated an Important Bird Area (IBA) by BirdLife International because it supports significant populations of grey imperial-pigeons, Palawan scops-owls, Palawan hornbills, Philippine cockatoos, blue-headed racket-tails, Palawan tits, melodius and ashy-headed babblers, white-vented shamas, Palawan blue-flycatchers, yellow-throated leafbirds and Palawan flowerpeckers.

Demography

The Molbogs, a Muslim ethnolinguistic group, are concentrated on the island. Their livelihood includes farming, fishing and barter trading with the nearby Mapun and Sabah market centres.

Historical and strategic context

The island borders the West Philippine Sea, a portion of the South China Sea, and therefore borders the area of the territorial disputes in the South China Sea among the Philippines and particularly mainland China, but also including the Republic of China (Taiwan), Vietnam, Malaysia, and Brunei. Balabac is about 140 nautical miles from Mischief Reef, termed Panganiban Reef by the Philippines, which the mainland Chinese government occupied in 1995 and subsequently turned into one of its largest artificial islands within what the Philippines considers its 370 km exclusive economic zone. Balabac hosts Naval Station Narciso Del Rosario of the Philippine Navy and will host the United States Military under the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA).

The Balabac Military Runway (BMR) is a 3 km military runway with a P305 million concrete pier — along with a beaching ramp — at the Naval Station Narciso del Rosario. It is one of five locations covered by the expanded EDCA and is a part of the 2017 Tatag ng Imprastraktura Para sa Kapayapaan and Seguridad program to service military and civilian aircraft.

A 1992 photograph of [[Cape Melville Lighthouse]], on the southern point of Balabac

References

The Molbog

References

. (2024). ["Balabac Island"](https://datazone.birdlife.org/site/factsheet/9756). *BirdLife International*.
(15 September 2023). "PH, US top brass eye more Edca sites". [[Philippine Daily Inquirer]].
(July 19, 2024). "Balabac Island's EDCA military runway nears completion". [[The Philippine Star]].

Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

islands-of-palawan important-bird-areas-of-the-philippines

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