TWO Chinese research vessels monitored at the vicinity of Philippine Rise, also known as Benham Rise, are now out of the country’s 200-nautical mile exclusive economic zone (EEZ), the military said yesterday.
The vessels merely passed through Benham Rise, a vast undersea region east of Luzon, according to Commodore Roy Vincent Trinidad, deputy commander of the Navy Fleet and concurrent Navy spokesman for the West Philippine Sea.
The UN Commission of the Continental Shelf approved in 2012 the Philippine claim and declared Benham Rise as the Philippines’ extended continental shelf.
On Friday, Raymond Powell, a retired US Air Force colonel and a fellow of the Gordian Knot Center for National Security Innovation, reported the presence of the Chinese vessels at Benham Rise. He said the research vessels Haiyang Dizhi Liuhao and Haiyang Dizhi Shihao left a port in Longxue Island in Guangzhou on February 26 and were seen “loitering” at the vicinity of Benham Rise on March 1.
Trinidad, in a radio interview, said, “We monitored them to be already out of our EEZ as of 3 p.m. yesterday (Saturday).”
“They came from Guangzhou, heading towards Pacific Ocean on (February) 26 and on 01 (March), they were at the vicinity of Benham Rise,” he added.
Trinidad said the AFP Northern Luzon Command was supposed to dispatch a surveillance aircraft last Friday to monitor anew the Chinese vessels. However, bad weather prevented the aircraft from taking off, he said.
In a message, Trinidad said the Navy’s “monitoring capability” observed the Chinese vessels to be already out of the country’s EEZ as of Saturday afternoon.
“They just passed through, going towards southeast Pacific,” he said without elaborating.
Trinidad said this is not the first time Chinese vessels passed through the area.
He said the military has a 24/7 capability to monitor activities at the Benham Rise.
But Trinidad said Navy ships cannot afford to sustain presence in the area because “it’s far and more remote compared to our detachments in the West Philippine Sea.”
Trinidad said the military has a “capability development plan” when it comes to Benham Rise.
“The sea condition in Benham Rise is different because it’s facing the Pacific Ocean. In the West Philippine Sea, there are instances of rough seas but it’s rougher at the eastern seaboard (where the Benham Rise is located),” he said.
In May 2017, then President Duterte renamed Benham Rise to Philippine Rise, which is about 24 million hectares in size, by virtue of Executive Order No. 25.
EO 25 says the Philippine Rise “is subject to the sovereign rights and jurisdiction of the Philippines, pursuant to relevant provisions of the 1987 Constitution, national legislation, the UNCLOS (United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea) and applicable international law.”
‘BASIC FACTS’
Tensions have flashed over maritime disputes in the South China Sea, with Beijing and Manila trading sharp accusations over a slew of run-ins.
China claims almost the entire South China Sea, a conduit for more than $3 trillion of annual ship-borne commerce, including parts claimed by the Philippines, Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei. The Permanent Court of Arbitration in 2016 said China’s claims had no legal basis.
China’s embassy in the Philippines yesterday said it “strongly” condemns the Philippine ambassador to Washington’s recent China-related remarks, saying they “disregarded basic facts.”
The remarks “wantonly hyped up the South China Sea issue and made speculations and malicious smears against China,” the embassy said in a statement.
Ambassador to the US Jose Manuel Romualdez said on Wednesday that while the United States sees both the South China Sea issue and a potential Taiwan conflict as “serious concerns,” he believed the “real flashpoint is the West Philippine Sea” given “all of these skirmishes happening there.”
The Chinese embassy said: “Inviting wolves into the house and engaging in small circles will not only not help resolve the differences in the South China Sea, but on the contrary will complicate the regional situation, and undermine regional peace and stability.”
It urged Romualdez to stop spreading the “China threat theory” and “paranoia of persecution,” and to refrain from “acting as a spokesperson for other countries.” — With Reuters