Duterte to visit PHL Rise next week

A technical diver checks out the coral cover during an expedition at the Philippine Rise last May 2016. Screengrab from a video produced by Oceana Philippines.

(Eagle News) — President Rodrigo Duterte is slated to visit the Philippine Rise next week.

The President made the pronouncement during a speech on Thursday, April 26, in Davao.

According to the President, he would “make a statement there that nobody but nobody owns this place (but us).”

He said this included “the continental shelf, the underground landmass that extends under the sea.”

It was President Duterte that gave the name Philippine Rise to the active undersea region located in the Philippine Sea around 250 kilometers east of the northern coastline of Dinapigue, Isabela.

This year, China gave several undersea features in the area names, an act that angered some sectors in the Philippines.

But the government downplayed the naming of the features, saying it would give its own names to the same.