Coast Guard installs sea buoys to mark Benham Rise domain
DAYS after holding its maritime exercises in the West Philippine Sea (WPS), the Philippine Coast Guard will install three of the 10 state-of-the-art lighted ocean buoys at the Philippine Rise, or Benham Rise.
The scheduled installation of the buoys today will mark the Philippine Rise as forming part of the country’s 200-nautical mile exclusive economic zone (EEZ), according to the Coast Guard.
The planting of the buoys deemed is very symbolic as the government is currently contending with the presence of Chinese vessels in parts of the Kalayaan Island Group and WPS.
The Coast Guard said the 30-foot long buoys arrived in Cebu from Valencia, Spain on May 7 and were since carefully assembled by the PCG Maritime Safety Services Command (MSSC) and M-NAV Solutions Inc.
The Uni-orient Pearl Ventures Inc. Shipyard where the buoys were delivered also assisted during the assembly process.
On Monday, Coast Guard Commandant Admiral George Ursabia Jr. inspected the buoys, which are equipped with modern navigation aids, specialized mooring systems and a remote monitoring system.
The buoys’ monitoring system uses satellite technology to transmit data to the PCG national headquarters in Port Area, Manila.
Ursabia said the presence of buoys in the Philippine Rise will effectively “communicate that said vicinity waters is considered a special protected zone. Hence, mining and oil exploration are strictly prohibited to preserve its rich natural resources.”
The Philippine Rise is located 250 kilometers east of the northern coastline of Aurora and it was supposed to have been the site of the second leg of the Coast Guard’s maritime training exercises.
An earlier statement from the office of Coast Guard spokesman Commodore Armand Balilo said that instead of the Philippine Rise, the second part of the exercise would just be held at the Scarborough Shoal.
It was near the shoal where two Coast Guard vessels, which were participating in the first leg of the exercise and were also conducting maritime patrol, were shadowed and blocked by the Chinese Coast Guard.
At the Ayungin Shoal, Philippine Coast Guard vessels, which have also joined the exercise and were conducting patrol also challenged and drove away Chinese ships.