Duterte says he will sail to Philippine Rise next week

April 27, 2018

President Rodrigo Duterte said he would sail to the Philippine Rise off eastern Luzon next week to tell the world that the Philippines owns it.

Duterte said this during his speech at the 102nd Annual Communication of the Most Worshipful Grand Lodge of the Free and Accepted Mason in the Philippines on Thursday before leaving for Singapore to attend the leaders meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

"Next week, I'm going to set sail on, I'm going to Benham Rise and I will make a statement there that nobody but nobody owns this place (but the Philippines, including continental shelf, the underground landmass that extends under the sea," he said.

"And if it extends to San Francisco Bay, San Francisco Bay is a property of the Republic of the Philippines," he added in jest.

Duterte said when he was asked about his stance on the the Philippine Rise, formerly Benham Rise, his replywas: "I will go to war, believe me."

While Duterte has been firm about the Philippine ownership of the Philippine Rise, he was, apparently soft in dealing with the country's claim in the South China Sea, which is also being claimed wholly by China.

The Philippine Rise is a 13-million-hectare undersea plateau approximately 160 nautical miles east of Luzon and off the provinces of Isabela and Aurora. It is located in the Central Basin Fault under the West Philippine Sea.

Scientific data on seismic, magnetic and other geological features of Benham Rise indicate that the region is an extension of the country’s continental shelf. The plateau is bigger than Luzon, or almost half the country’s total land area.

A full territorial claim was lodged by the Philippines with the United Nations Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf (UNCLOS) on April 9, 2009. In April 2012, UNCLOS recognized and officially approved the country's claim. In effect, the territory of the Philippines increased from 30 million hectares to 43 million hectares. Celerina Monte/DMS