Balabac Island

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.

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 kilometres (230 mi) 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.