Mavulis Island is the northernmost of the

Batanes Islands Batanes, officially the Province of Batanes ( ivv, Provinsiya nu Batanes; Ilocano: ''Probinsia ti Batanes''; fil, Lalawigan ng Batanes, ), is an archipelagic province in the Philippines, administratively part of the Cagayan Valley region. It i ...

and the northernmost island in the Philippines. It is part of the

province A province is almost always an administrative division within a country or state. The term derives from the ancient Roman '' provincia'', which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire's territorial possessions ou ...

of Batanes. The island is uninhabited but it is guarded by the military. It is also frequently visited by local fishermen (mostly from Itbayat and Basco) for fishing adventures. The island has a newly constructed military and fishermen shelter, a water desalination plant, a helipad, lighthouse, and a flagpole on the top of the hill in the island. The island also hosts the northernmost flagpole in the country.

Alternative names

Older Batan natives also called the island Dimavulis or Dihami, meaning "north" in Ivatan. By some members of the Spanish colonial government it was called Diami, and it is known as Yami or Y'Ami on most American Colonial Era maps of the Philippines. The latter should not be confused with the aboriginal

Yami Yamuna is a sacred river in Hinduism and the main tributary of the Ganges River. The river is also worshipped as a Hindu goddess called Yamuna. Yamuna is known as Yami in early texts, while in later literature, she is called Kalindi. In Hindu scr ...

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...

that live on islands farther north beyond Philippine territorial limits, but are geographically, culturally and linguistically related to the

Ivatan people The Ivatan people are an Austronesian ethnolinguistic group native to the Batanes and Babuyan Islands of the northernmost Philippines. They are genetically closely-related to other ethnic groups in Northern Luzon, but also share close linguist ...

. The island is also called Amianan, meaning "north" in Ilocano.

Geography

The island is part of the

Luzon Volcanic Arc The Luzon Volcanic Arc is a chain of volcanoes in a north–south line across the Luzon Strait from Taiwan to Luzon. The name "Luzon Volcanic Arc" was first proposed by Carl Bowin et al. to describe a series of Miocene to recent volcanoes due to ...

, and is located southeast of the southern tip of

's main island and to the nearest Taiwanese island, the "Lesser Orchid Island". The distance to

Luzon Luzon (; ) is the largest and most populous island in the Philippines. Located in the northern portion of the Philippines archipelago, it is the economic and political center of the nation, being home to the country's capital city, Manila, as ...

is . The island is long and up to wide. The highest point, Y'Ami Hill, is high. The island is rocky on the coasts but covered in lush vegetation, including mangrove, vuyavuy palms and other native shrubs.

Coconut crab The coconut crab (''Birgus latro'') is a species of terrestrial hermit crab, also known as the robber crab or palm thief. It is the largest terrestrial arthropod in the world, with a weight of up to . It can grow to up to in width from the tip ...

s are found on the island in large numbers.

Development

The

Armed Forces of the Philippines The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) ( fil, Sandatahang Lakas ng Pilipinas) are the military forces of the Philippines. It consists of three main service branches; the Army, the Air Force, and the Navy (including the Marine Corps). The P ...

Northern Luzon Command in 2016 has pushed for the establishment of a Marine detachment on Mavulis Island to affirm the Philippines'

sovereignty Sovereignty is the defining authority within individual consciousness, social construct, or territory. Sovereignty entails hierarchy within the state, as well as external autonomy for states. In any state, sovereignty is assigned to the perso ...

on the northernmost point of the archipelago. The Marine detachment was opened in 2018, with a fisherman's shelter completed in 2019 and turned over to the local municipality for maintenance and operation. In May 2021, the Department of Defense of the Philippines announced the electrification of the island through a solar power station, with a back-up diesel generator. This was done through the help of the One

Meralco The Manila Electric Company (), also known as Meralco (, ), is an electric power distribution company in the Philippines. It is Metro Manila's only electric power distributor and holds the power distribution franchise for 22 cities and 89 munic ...

Foundation. The DND also announced the commissioning of a

desalination plant Desalination is a process that takes away mineral components from saline water. More generally, desalination refers to the removal of salts and minerals from a target substance, as in soil desalination, which is an issue for agriculture. Saltw ...

to provide potable water to personnel assigned to the island.

Gallery

File:Philippine Island - Batan Islands - NARA - 68156384.jpg, Aerial view of the island, 1935 File:Desalination Water Toast by Philippine government officials.jpg, Sec.

Delfin Lorenzana Delfin Negrillo Lorenzana, OLH, KGOR (born October 28, 1948) is a retired Philippine Army general who served as Secretary of National Defense in the Cabinet of President Rodrigo Duterte from 2016 to 2022. He served in the Philippine Army from ...

leads a toast of the water produced by the desalination plant at Mavulis Island.

References

University of Georgia - a webpage on the Yami of Taiwan
{{Authority control Islands of Batanes Uninhabited islands of the Philippines

Alternative names

Geography

Development

Gallery

See also

References