(Eagle News) — The Philippines insisted on its rights and ownership of Benham Rise as the Department of National Defense said it would increase patrols and build structures in Benham Rise to ensure that the country would protect its rights over the area, which is considered as part of the country’s extended continental shelf.
“Well, we will do something there, we will increase our patrols at the same time, we might set up a structure to says that (Benham Rise) is ours,” Lorenzana said.
Increasing Filipino patrols in the area would mean being able to protect Benham Rise which had been claimed by the Philippines. The country lodged its claim on Benham Rise with the United Nations Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf on 8 April 2009, and was approved under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) in 2012.
President Rodrigo Duterte said he had already ordered the military to assert the country’s ownership of Benham Rise, but in a friendly way. He said the country has no option but to be diplomatic with China because “I cannot match the might of China.”
“My order to my military, you go there and tell them straight that this is ours, but say it in friendship,” Duterte earliersaid in a news conference.
Foreign Affairs spokesperson Charles Jose also said that the Philippines’ ownership of Benham Rise was “indisputable.”
“Benham Rise is part of our [370-kilometer] exclusive economic zone (EEZ) and extended continental shelf … so our claim is indisputable,” Assistant Secretary Charles Jose, DFA spokesperson, said on Tuesday.
“The Philippines has the sole and exclusive right to explore, exploit and manage natural resources on Benham Rise so I think it is our responsibility to protect this area,” Jose said.
The Benham Plateau, also known as the Benham Rise, is a seismically active undersea region and extinct volcanic ridge located in the Philippine Sea approximately 250 km (160 miles) east of the northern coastline of Dinapigue, Isabela.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry admitted that they had vessels which passed by the area last year, but insisted that they were only exercising freedom of navigation and the right to innocent passage.
Lorenzana, however, disputed China’s response. He said that ships exercising the right to innocent passage do not constantly change their courses and speeds.
