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By Prince Golez, Manila Reporter
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Thursday, March 23, 2017
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A Filipino diver explores the resource-rich waters of Benham Rise, around 250 km east of the northern coastline of Dinapigue, Isabela. UP – MSI
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MANILA – Sen. Leila de Lima wants a Senate investigation into the “suspicious” Chinese incursions in Benham Rise.
In filing Senate Resolution No. 334, de Lima said the probe seeks to find out why Chinese vessels sailed into Philippine waters.
“There is need to ascertain the exact nature of Chinese activities in Benham Rise, especially with the threat of China’s expanding its military presence in the region,” the senator said.
Defense secretary Delfin Lorenzana had said that satellite images monitored suspicious activities of Chinese vessels in the waters of Benham Rise last year for three months.
A warship was spotted 70 miles off the western coast in the West Philippine Sea, and survey ships were seen to the north and south of its eastern seaboard, Lorenzana said.
De Lima also criticized the “evident lack of communication” between President Rodrigo Duterte and the defense chief.
Duterte earlier revealed he was informed by China that they will be surveying Benham Rise.
The presence of Chinese research ships, according to the President, was not a form of “incursion.”
“We were advised way ahead but we have the right to ask ‘how are things going? What is your purpose?” Duterte said in a Malacañang press briefing on March 13.
For Duterte’s leading critic, however, the “national security lapse” committed by the former Davao City mayor needs to be investigated.
“China cannot correctly claim that its ships were merely exercising navigational rights and freedoms because the Department of National Defense has satellite images to prove that its vessels were not moving from one place to another in a regular and efficient pace like any other foreign vessel,” de Lima said in her resolution.
For his part, Sen. Joseph Victor “JV” Ejercito urged the Department of Foreign Affairs to file a “strong diplomatic protest” against the reported Chinese activities in the Philippine territory.
“As a member of the community of nations, we do not wish to engage in destructive military confrontations. We should therefore exhaust all diplomatic means in asserting our sovereign rights in these territories,” Ejercito said.
In 2012, the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea recognized and approved the country’s claim to Benham Rise, a 13-million hectare resources-rich undersea region that lies east of Luzon and off the provinces of Isabela and Aurora./PN
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