{"id":93862,"date":"2017-03-14T02:35:33","date_gmt":"2017-03-14T06:35:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=93862"},"modified":"2017-03-14T02:35:33","modified_gmt":"2017-03-14T06:35:33","slug":"benham-rise-belongs-to-filipinos-malacanang","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2017\/03\/14\/benham-rise-belongs-to-filipinos-malacanang\/","title":{"rendered":"Benham Rise belongs to Filipinos\u2014Malaca\u00f1ang"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Malaca\u00f1ang<\/a>
Malaca\u00f1ang on Tuesday asserted that Benham Rise belongs to the Filipino people even as it cited the need for improved capabilities to protect Philippine sovereignty over its territories. (Photo: Benham Rise\/Facebook<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA\u2014Malaca\u00f1ang on Tuesday asserted that Benham Rise belongs to the Filipino people even as it cited the need for improved capabilities to protect Philippine sovereignty over its territories.<\/p>\n

\u201cFirst and foremost, the Benham Rise belongs to the Filipino people. The Philippine government is duty-bound to defend and protect our sovereign and territorial rights over this region,\u201d Presidential Spokesperson Ernesto Abella stressed during a Palace briefing.<\/p>\n

He pointed out that the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Seas (UNCLOS) supports the Philippines’ claim on the maritime feature east of Luzon.<\/p>\n

Benham Rise was awarded to the Philippines by the United Nations in 2012.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Philippines has the responsibility to oversee and regulate the sailing ships of other countries that passes the waters of Benham Rise,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Thus, the Palace official said that other countries were only allowed to pass through Benham Rise.<\/p>\n

\u201cOther countries can exercise innocent passage and territorial navigation. But they are disallowed to stay and establish any structure in the area,\u201d Abella said.<\/p>\n

The Palace official issued the statements following reports from the Department of National Defense (DND) that several Chinese vessels were monitored in the region last year.<\/p>\n

But Beijing claimed that its vessels were only exercising its right of innocent passage, a claim being disputed by the DND.<\/p>\n

Besides being a biodiversity hotspot, the 13-million hectare area located off the Aurora and Isabela coastline is also believed to be fuel-rich.<\/p>\n

In the meantime, Abella said that during the National Security Council (NSC) meeting late Monday night, President Rodrigo Duterte gave his full support to the improvement of capabilities of law enforcement agencies in monitoring Philippine air space and territorial waters.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe President did agree that we should improve capabilities of enforcing our rights in the matter\u2026 enforcing our rights regarding airspace and territorial waters,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The Palace official added though that the Philippine government will continue diplomatic talks with China.<\/p>\n

\u201cHaving said that thing about Benham Rise, we will continue to pursue diplomatic talks with the other party,\u201d Abella said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u2014Malaca\u00f1ang on Tuesday asserted that Benham Rise belongs to the Filipino people even as it cited the need for improved …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":93268,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1482,1145,16,95],"tags":[5450,4792],"class_list":["post-93862","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-breaking","category-headline","category-news","category-news-ph","tag-benham-rise","tag-malacanang-palace","mauthors-cielito-m-reganit","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93862","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=93862"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93862\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/93268"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=93862"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=93862"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=93862"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}