Duterte plans visit to assert undersea claim

President Rodrigo Duterte will sail to the Philippine Rise (Benham Rise) next week to reiterate the country’s claim to the resource-rich undersea region.Speaking before freemasons in Davao City, Duterte said his trip to the volcanic ridge would be a statement to the world that it is owned solely by the Philippines.“I will make a statement (in Philippine Rise) that nobody owns this place (but us), including the continental shelf, the underground landmass that extends under the sea,” Duterte in remarks during 102nd Annual Communication of the Most Worshipful Grand Lodge of the Free and Accepted Mason of the Philippines.Duterte also reiterated that if needed, he would go to war for the disputed area, which was confirmed by a United Nations agency as being part of the Philippines’ extended continental shelf in 2012. On March 1, Duterte said: “If anybody, any country for that matter, would say that they’d want to try and experiment there without our permission and worse, begin exploration talks here at Benham or Philippine Rise, I will not allow it, and it will mean war.”Palace spokesman Harry Roque Jr said the strong words of Duterte were not directed to China. Controversy arose earlier this year when the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) granted the request of the Institute of Oceanology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences for marine scientific research in Eastern Luzon and Eastern Mindanao.A similar request by French-based non-profit organisation Tara Expeditions was declined by the DFA, according to Magdalo Party-list Rep. Gary Alejano.Shortly after, Duterte ordered the termination of all existing requests of foreign entities to research the area, and directed all interested parties to seek the clearance of National Security Adviser Hermogenes Esperon Jr.Jay Batongbacal, a maritime law expert and a professor at the University of the Philippines later bared that China was successful in naming five undersea features in the 13mn-hectare undersea plateau.The Philippines is considering an appeal before the International Hydrographic Organisation, the organisation that approved China’s application to re-name the five features.