[citation needed] Japan had considered the area a potential source for extracting guano since the 1920s[6] and agreed to fund an expedition led by Filemon and his crew to explore the islands.

[citation needed] On May 11, 1956, Filemon Cloma led 40 men in taking formal possession of the islands,[7][8] lying some 380 miles (612 km) west of the southern end of Palawan and named them Freedomland.

[10] Tomás Cloma Sr. asserted that the territory was without owner, since Japan renounced ownership in the San Francisco Peace Conference in 1951.

Ten days later, he sent his second representation to the Secretary of Foreign Affairs informing the latter that the territory claimed was named Freedomland.

On October 1, 1956, at North Danger Reef[11] in the South China Sea,[12][13] two Taiwanese ships—[14][15] namely, the Ning Yuan (寧遠) flotilla of the Taiwanese Navy,[12] containing naval vessels Taihe and Yongshun–[13] approached Filemon Cloma's expedition with the boat PMI-IV[8][10][2] and invited Captain Cloma (and Chief Engineer Benito Danseco, and other crew members[13]) aboard the naval vessel Tai He[13] for a conference.

[7][8][16][17][6] In 1972, Tomás Cloma Sr. was jailed by Philippine President Ferdinand E. Marcos for four months for "impersonating a military officer by being called an "admiral".

[18] In August 1974, Tomás Cloma Sr. and the Supreme Council of Freedomland drafted a new Constitution, declaring the country to be a Principality and encouraging its colonization.

In August, Cloma changed the name of the country from Freedomland to Colonia and retired as titular head of state in favor of John de Mariveles with the title of Prince.

[19] In December 1974, Tomás Cloma Sr. was arrested and forced to sign a document to convey to the Philippines whatever rights he might have had in the territory for one peso.

He faked his age and a US citizenship to fight in the Signal Corps (United States Army) during the WWII Japanese invasion of the Philippines, and was chosen by Gen. MacArthur to serve as a code and cipher specialist.

He escaped the Bataan Death March, and was engaged in guerilla warfare under the command of Lt. Col. Wendell Fertig in the 10th Military District (Tenth United States Army) until the end of World War II.