PH rejects Chinese names for Benham Rise features

The Philippines “object and do not recognize” the Chinese names given to some undersea features in Philippine Rise, formerly Benham Rise. Photo shows a technical diver checking coral cover at the offshore frontier in May 2016. SCREENGRAB / OCEANA PHILIPPINES VIDEO

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BY PRINCE GOLEZ
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February 14, 2018
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The Philippines “object and do not recognize” the Chinese names given to some undersea features in Philippine Rise, formerly Benham Rise. Photo shows a technical diver checking coral cover at the offshore frontier in May 2016. SCREENGRAB / OCEANA PHILIPPINES VIDEO

MANILA – Malacañang has rejected China’s naming of several undersea features in Benham Rise, which has been renamed Philippine Rise.

“We object and do not recognize the Chinese names given to some undersea features in the Philippine Rise,” Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said on Wednesday.

The Philippine government, through its embassy in Beijing, already raised the concern to China, Roque said.

The embassy is “considering a recommendation to officially notify the chair of the International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission General Bathymetric Chart of the Oceans Subcommittee on Undersea Feature Names (SCUFN),” he added.

China has named several undersea features in Benham Rise – the Jinghao, Tianbao, Haidonquing Seamount, and Jujiu Seamounts, and the Cuiqiao Hill – Dr. Jay Batongbacal, director of the University of the Philippines’ Institute for Maritime Affairs and Law of the Sea, said in a Facebook post on Monday.

China submitted the names for consideration in 2014 and the IHO approved these in 2016 and 2017, said Batongbacal.

Benham Rise is a vast offshore frontier facing the Pacific Ocean approximately 24 million hectares in size.

It encompasses the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone and continental shelf further out in the ocean.

President Rodrigo Duterte issued an executive order in May last year renaming it Philippine Rise.

Roque noted that the Philippines is not a member of the SCUFN.

The presidential spokesman said China’s name proposals were submitted to the SCUFN during meetings in Brazil on Oct. 12 to 16, 2015 and Sept. 19 to 23, 2017./PN
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