SINCE 1993, the University of the Philippines’ Marine Science Institute (UP MSI) has been conducting research on what lies beneath Pag-asa Island — the largest in the Kalayaan Island Group or the Spratly Islands in the West Philippine Sea. Last month, UP MSI launched a new page on its website focusing on Pag-asa’s fascinating biodiversity. Scientific studies on the island had often gone through “considerable odds,” since China, Taiwan and Vietnam each claim they own the island — “a speck of green and white, only 37 hectares large” and about 277 miles west of Puerto Princesa City in Palawan, with…