(Eagle News) — The Palace on Thursday said it believes China’s naming of undersea features at Philippine Rise was not done “in bad faith.”
“We’re not attributing any bad faith to China, but we’re just saying respect us too that we will give Philippine names to them,” Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said in a press briefing.
According to Roque, because of the incident, the Philippines would now nominate its own expert in the International Hydrographic Organization’s (IHO) Sub-Committee on Undersea Feature Names (SCUFN) which approved the names China assigned.
“Hindi lang ako ang authority to say kung sino ang ino-nominate natin pero siya po ay isang scientist,” he said.
“..Ang stand natin,bahala kayo anong ibigay niyo dyan basta kami magtatalaga kami ng Pilipinong pangalanan gaya ng ginawa namin sa pagbalewala sa pangalan na ibinigay ng mga Amerikano sa lugar na ‘yan. Ngayon Philippine Rise na ‘yan,” he said.
Earlier, Roque said the Philippines made known its “objection” to China’s move.
In a Facebook post, 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 the features were named 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 all were “within 200 nautical miles of the east coast of Luzon, not in the region of the extended continental shelf but well within the “legal” continental shelf,” or “within 200 nautical miles, where the coastal State’s rights are ipso facto and ab initio and do not need to undergo a claim process.”
President Rodrigo Duterte has reiterated that the Philippine Rise–formerly named Benham Rise–was the Philippines’.
