The Philippine Navy will regularly patrol Benham Rise in the western Pacific after Chinese research vessels were sighted in the area, Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said on Friday.
The Philippine Navy will regularly patrol Benham Rise in the western Pacific after Chinese research vessels were sighted in the area, Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said on Friday.
Lorenzana spoke after the Philippine Navy sent one of its warships, the frigate BRP Ramon Alcaraz, to begin patrolling the undersea region and biodiversity hot spot off eastern Luzon.
“The Navy will henceforth regularly patrol Benham Rise partly due to past Chinese activities there but, more importantly, because it is part of our continental shelf and awarded to us by the [United Nations],” Lorenzana said.
In 2012, the United Nations said Benham Rise was part of the Philippines’ continental shelf under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea.
