By Meanne Corvera
Eagle News Service
Senator Antonio Trillanes IV on Wednesday urged the Philippines to file a diplomatic protest against China over its reported naming of five undersea features at Philippine Rise.
“So palagay ko this time, it warrants at the very least, a diplomatic protest dahil hndi pwedeng hahayaan na lang yan. At least ngayon maliwanag na, dapat off limits na sa kanila itong Benham Rise,” Trillanes said in an interview with reporters.
He said the filing of a protest was “largely symbolic” that the Philippines was not agreeing with what China was reported to have done.
“E itong administrasyon na ito, ni diplomatic protest o ni salita man lang, a statement condemning o protesting itong nangyayari na yan e wala kang naririnig e. So a diplomatic protest is a good first step in the right direction,” Trillanes, a known critic of President Rodrigo Duterte, said.
In a separate statement, Senator JV Ejercito echoed Trillanes’ statement.
“We have to exhaust all diplomatic means, possible legal and diplomatic means to fight for our territories, fight for our sovereignty. Di naman pwedeng palagi na lang tayo , sabi nga ni (Senator Panfilo) Lacson, ‘Are we this helpless?’ Minsan nakakaano na rin, nakakafrustrating, it’s also nakakagalit kasi masyado na tayong binubully,” he said.
He noted that China was a “superpower.”
“We cannot match them in terms of military might, talagang hindi nating kakayanin ang China, superpower,” he said.
Jay Batongbacal, an associate professor at the University of the Philippines College of Law and director of the University of the Philippines Institute for Maritime Affairs and Law of the Sea, said China has successfully named five undersea features in the region.
According to Batongbacal, the features were the “Jinghao and Tianbao Seamounts located some 70 nautical miles east of Cagayan; the Haidonquing Seamount further east at 190 nautical miles; and the Cuiqiao Hill and Jujiu Seamount that form the central peaks of the Philippine Rise undersea geological province itself.”
He said the International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) approved last year the names proposed by China for the features their researchers supposedly discovered in 2004.
Batongbacal said three of the names were submitted to the IHO in 2014, during the time of President Benigno Aquino III.
Two more names were submitted in 2016.
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