Certify bill to protect Phl Rise as urgent, Duterte asked

An opposition lawmaker yesterday asked President Duterte to certify as urgent his bill seeking to create a body that will help develop and protect the country’s sovereign rights over its oil-rich eastern seaboard Philippine (Benham) Rise.

Buhay Rep. Lito Atienza is also proposing under his House Bill 5360 that the socioeconomic planning secretary, who is also National Economic and Development Authority chief, should head the governing body.

HB 5360 proposes the creation of a Philippine Rise Protection and Development Authority (PRPDA).

“It has become absolutely imperative for us to designate a single highly focused entity to safeguard and manage the resources found in the waters, seabed and subsoil of Benham that rightfully belong to the Philippines,” he said.

Atienza’s measure seeks to “guarantee that all natural resources within the 13 million-hectare undersea region are preserved for the exclusive enjoyment of future generations of Filipinos.”

“This is the only way we can ensure that all living as well as non-living assets in the region that form part of our national wealth are adequately protected and harnessed for the benefit of our children and their children,” Atienza stressed.

Under his proposal, the PRPDA chairman (or NEDA chief) would also recommend for appointment by Malacañang the person that would serve as full-time chief executive officer or administrator of the PRPDA.

Atienza earlier said Beijing’s move to ascribe Chinese names to five seamounts in the Philippine Rise has “zero impact” on the sovereign rights that Manila enjoys over the submerged region.

The Philippine Rise, formerly Benham Rise, is located off the country’s Pacific coast, some 250 kilometers east of the northern beaches of Dinapigue, Isabela.

The Chinese tags have not reduced the fact that under international law, Benham forms part of the Philippine continental shelf, according to Atienza.

Atienza also urged the government to give Filipino names to every seamount in the region.

Under his bill, the PRPDA’s governing board would include the heads of the departments of environment and natural resources, energy, agriculture, science and technology, finance, tourism, public works and highways, and defense, plus three private sector representatives.

Inquiry on foreign research

At the Senate, Sens. Grace Poe and Paolo Benigno Aquino IV filed separate resolutions calling for an inquiry into the research activities of foreign governments in the Philippine Rise.

Poe and Aquino wanted scientists and security officials to tackle the various issues over the resource-rich area.

“We must listen to our scientists, researchers and experts. (They) deserve respect, recognition and resources from our government,” Aquino said.

“We want to find out from experts the extent of the natural resources that can be found in Benham Rise and the possible threat of China to these,” he added.

Local scientists are expected to present their research findings while government officials are set to discuss their plans for Philippine Rise, the 13 million-hectare underwater plateau.

Among those invited to the hearing are Supreme Court Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio, maritime law expert Jay Batongbacal of the UP Institute for Maritime Affairs and Law of the Sea, Fernando Siringan, director of the UP-Maritime Science Institute, Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana, National Security Adviser Hermogenes Esperon Jr., Navy chief Rear Admiral Robert Empedrad and Chinese Ambassador Zhao Jianhua, among others.

With the West Philippine Sea “effectively fenced off” by China, Sen. Ralph Recto said “we have to look to the ‘east Philippine seas’ for our food and fuel.”

“If there’s an impregnable Great Wall of Sand from Scarborough (Panatag) Shoal to the Spratlys, then we have to look elsewhere for our power and protein needs,” he said.

Recto said protecting the Philippine Rise means protecting our future food and energy security.

The Malampaya field off Palawan is projected to run out of natural gas by 2024. Malampaya supplies 45 percent of electricity of Luzon, which is home to 57 million people, he said.

Recto said this “zero dark hour” prospect for the world’s fourth most populous island should spur the government this early to find replacement energy sources.

Joint exploration with other claimants in the West Philippine Sea is the “low hanging fruit” option, and the other is to explore for oil in other promising areas, like the Philippine Rise, he said.

“The other imperative is the need to boost our fisheries output. If the entire Western waters of the country have become a no- or restricted fishing zone, then we have to cast our nets elsewhere,” Recto said.

Poe pressed for more government funding for research and exploration in the Philippine Rise.

“If studies to be conducted by Filipino scientists would prove that Benham Rise and the West Philippine Sea are rich in mineral and oil deposits, it could turn the Philippines into a gas exporter and could reduce the dependence of the country on imported oil,” she said.

During the administration of former president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, the Philippine government in 2009 specifically marked Benham Rise as within the limits of the Philippine continental shelf.

The United Nations Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf approved the demarcation three years later.