History keeps repeating itself, back in the days it was France. In 1933, France asserted its claims from 1887[48] to the Spratly and Paracel Islands on behalf of its then-colony Vietnam.[49] It occupied a number of the Spratly Islands, including Taiping Island, built weather stations on 2 of the islands, and administered them as part of French Indochina. This occupation was protested by the Republic of China (ROC) government because France admitted finding Chinese fishermen there when French warships visited 9 of the islands.[50] In 1935, the ROC government also announced a sovereignty claim on the Spratly Islands. Japan occupied some of the islands in 1939 during World War II, and it used the islands as a submarine base for the occupation of Southeast Asia. During the Japanese occupation, these islands were called Shinnan Shoto (新南諸島), literally the New Southern Islands, and together with the Paracel Islands (西沙群岛), they were put under the governance of the Japanese colonial authority in Taiwan.

Japan occupied the Paracels and the Spratlys from February 1939 to August 1945.[51]

In November 1946, the ROC sent naval ships to take control of the islands after the surrender of Japan.[51] It had chosen the largest and perhaps the only inhabitable island, Taiping Island, as its base, and it renamed the island under the name of the naval vessel as Taiping. Also following the defeat of Japan at the end of World War II, the ROC re-claimed the entirety of the Spratly Islands (including Taiping Island) after accepting the Japanese surrender of the islands based on the Cairo and Potsdam Declarations.[citation needed] Japan had renounced all claims to the islands in the 1951 San Francisco Peace Treaty together with the Paracels, Pratas and other islands captured from the Chinese, and upon these declarations, the government of the Republic of China reasserted its claim to the islands. The KMT forces of the ROC government withdrew from most of the Spratly and Paracel Islands after they retreated to Taiwan from the opposing Communist Party of China due to their losses in the Chinese Civil War and the founding of the People's Republic of China (PRC) in 1949.[49] The ROC quietly withdrew troops from Taiping Island in 1950, but then reinstated them in 1956 in response to Tomás Cloma's sudden claim to the island as part of Freedomland.[52] As of 2013, Taiping Island is administered by the ROC.[53] In conclusion the legitimate owner is taiwan aka KMT nationalist of china.as the same gov. exists as of today.

So for philipines and usa to base their claims via Tomas Clomas is invalid, as well as vietnam basing their claims on french colony era.