Philippine Rise and making nice
IN this Chinese year of the dog, we can’t let it wag its tail without knowing who is its real master.
*** To assert sovereignty over the resource-rich waters amid reports of incursions by Chinese ships, President Rodrigo Duterte signed Executive Order No. 25 in 2017 officially renaming Benham Rise to “Philippine Rise.” The 13-million hectare undersea landmass off Aurora is a seismically active undersea region and an extinct volcanic ridge in the Philippine Sea approximately 250 km (160 mi) east of the northern coastline of Isabela.
The Philippines claimed this feature as part of its continental shelf with the United Nations Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf on April 8, 2009, and our application was approved in 2012.
China applied for permission to gather data on the ocean circulation in the Western Pacific Ocean, including Benham Rise. DFA granted the permit to the Institute of Oceanology of Chinese Academy of Sciences (IOCAS), to conduct the study in tandem with Filipino scientists from the University of the Philippines Marine Science Institute (UP-MSI). The permit was good for 33 days or until February 25 for the Chinese survey vessel Ke Xue Hao along with the vehicles, platforms and installations, all under the close monitoring and security supervision of the Philippine Navy or the Philippine Coast Guard.
Filipino maritime law expert Jay Batongbacal welcomed China acquiescing to partner with Filipino scientists to join its survey. Batongbacal noted that China had been conducting surveys on Benham Rise despite previous denial of its requests. He said the permit puts China under obligation to abide by Philippine laws and the rules set by the permit and to share the results of its study.
However, government critics slammed the approval of the permit. Supreme Court Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio, who led the country’s international case against China’s “squatting” in the West Philippine Sea (South China Sea), called it “dumb” to allow China to explore the waters on our side.
When President Duterte ordered the halting of all foreign researches in the Philippines Rise, the Chinese Academy of Sciences had already completed its research two days before the halt order.
We would later learn that the International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) and the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) of the UNESCO have rules granting the party that first discovers unnamed features underwater the right to name those features. Filipino officials realize that China was after the naming rights over the underwater features of the Benham Rise which would be internationallyrecognized by UNESCO.
Despite the UN’s 2012 ruling that Benham Rise aka Philippine Rise belongs to the Philippines, the IHO approved the following Chinese names for five undersea features in Benham/Philippine Rise:
• Jinghao Seamount; and Tianbao Seamounts, (both located some 70 nautical miles east of Cagayan);
• Haidonquing Seamount (further east at 190 nautical miles);
• Cuiqiao Hill and Jujiu Seamount, (both form the central peaks of the Philippine Rise undersea geological province itself)
That’s not everything: China intends to name a total of 142 features within the coming months, with all proposed names in Chinese.
(Were we taken for a ride and as a CSIS expert concluded, “well-intentioned but naive”? The Chinese naming of the features met public protests in the Philippines. To disperse public anxiety, PDu30 reassured that Benham/Philippine Rise belongs to us; Malacanang spokesman Harry Roque chimed in, “Naming doesn’t mean they are claiming.”
Former national security adviser Roilo Golez advised the Duterte administration against underestimating China’s naming rights of four seamounts and an underwater hill within Philippine Rise. He underscored the fact that China had already intruded into the West Philippine Sea and continued occupying territories there and building military structures in the areas (after the July 12, 2016 ruling of the UN Arbitral Tribunal that these were part of the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone). Golez noted that as early as 2004, long before the Philippines filed its claim over Benham Rise in 2008, China had already researched the seismically active undersea region and extinct volcanic ridge. After the research, China filed in 2014 and 2016 applications with the IHO for the naming of some of Benham’s underwater features. Golez concluded with passion, “Paano natin masasabi na good faith ang isang bansa, inagawan tayo ng teritoryo? Dinukutan ka na tapos sasabihin mo huwag kang mag-alala at mapapagkatiwalaan natin?”
Possession may be nine-tenths of the law. But seeing China’s voracious appetite and knowing its vision, Golez warns that in the forseeable future China would also lay claim to Benham Rise or portions thereof, presenting credentials as the first to identify and name the areas in the territory (which IHO recognized and approved). *** A fable for our times. And that may leave us breathless, with nothing but the Once Upon a Time shortlived name “Philippine Rise.” FEEDBACK: