	Bito-onon is a pioneer and town planner who moved to Thitu Island in 1997 to help strengthen Filipino sovereignty claims to the South China Sea. Believing that a civilian presence helps to strengthen Filipino claims to the South China Sea. Bito-onon helped to establish the first deliberately settled civilian town in the Spratlys on Thitu Island in 2001. In June 2012, he helped establish the Pag-Asa Elementary School, the first school on Thitu Island. Referred to by Hayton as Cloma's heir, Bito-onon also oversaw the completion of a small statue of Tomas Cloma on Thitu Island.