Philippine Rise to spur blue economy

Aside from Molave Spur and Narra Spur, there would soon be Acacia, Apitong, and other popular native trees in our country that would be used to name undersea features of the 13-million hectare Philippine Rise. Itself once called Benham Rise, now renamed as Philippine Rise, the christening of these undersea features within the region will be among the key subject matters that President Rodrigo Duterte may raise with his Beijing counterpart President Xi Jinping when they meet possibly next month in China.

National Security Adviser Hermogenes Esperon Jr. disclosed such possible four-eyes meeting between the two leaders might arise in the Boao Leaders’ Forum that China hosts every year. At the moment, Esperon admitted nothing is definite yet since the Philippine-China Bilateral Consultative Meeting (BCM) just took place last month in Manila.

During the BCM talks held last Feb. 13, the Philippine government raised issue of unauthorized research conducted by the Institute of Oceanology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences that resulted to their giving Chinese names to five underwater features they supposedly “discovered” at the Philippine Rise in 2004.

Maritime law expert Dr. Jay Batongbacal earlier revealed in his Facebook post the International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) approved already last year the Chinese names of five undersea features as submitted by Beijing to this body. Batongbacal revealed the five features are all within 200 nautical miles of the east coast of Cagayan. The Chinese names are, namely: Jinghao Seamount; Tianbao Seamount; Haidonquing Seamount; Cuiqiao Hill; and Jujiu Seamount.

The Philippines – not a member of the IHO – came to know about the Chinese names belatedly, Esperon rued. 

While Beijing may have freely given Chinese names to these five features as member of IHO, Esperon, however, clarified this did not mean ownership. Esperon echoed the Philippine government assertion it would not recognize these Chinese names and will press its protest with the IHO to reject these names.

In fact, Esperon cited, the Philippines already had approved names for some of these underwater features but were unable to finish the list while awaiting the results of its claim between 2009 to 2011.

Esperon presented before the Senate hearing last week the facts about the Philippine Rise getting from the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf of the United Nations on April 12, 2013 the adoption in full of the Republic of the Philippines’ submission for Extended Continental Shelf (ECS) in the Benham Rise Region.  The ECS is that part of the seabed that extends beyond 200 nautical miles from the country’s baselines.

It described the Philippine Rise as a shallow bathymetric feature, east of Luzon that towers above the adjacent deep ocean floor. The shallowest part – called the Benham Bank – Esperon noted, is less than 50 meters deep. The main body of the Philippine Rise is like a plateau with its broad crest and steep slopes toward the deep ocean floor of the West Philippine Basin.

Two of the prominent features in the ECS in the Philippine Rise are named Molave Spur in the southeast and the Narra Spur in the northeast. The Narra Spur is described as a complex feature narrowing to less than 20 km)wide and connected to the main body of the Rise through the Narra Saddle. Molave Spur, on the other hand, is described as an arrowhead shaped plateau, extending almost 200-km east of the main body of the Rise. It is connected to the main body of the Rise through the Molave Saddle. 

It is roughly the size of the country Greece and believed to be rich in biodiversity and blue-fin tuna.

Following the uproar against China’s conduct of research in the area, the Office of the National Security Adviser has been tasked to oversee the issuance of permits for marine seismic researches by foreign entities in Philippine Rise. This job was solely the job of the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) in the past.

Esperon was our featured guest last Wednesday at the Kapihan sa Manila Bay which we hold every week at Cafe Adriatico in Remedios Circle, Malate. He is one of the closest advisers of President Duterte with whom he had a longstanding association while the latter was still Mayor of Davao City and him assigned at the battlefields in Mindanao during his active service in the military.

From economic estimates, Esperon quoted figures of P120 billion worth of much-prized blue-fin, blue corals and other sea and marine products that could be harvested from the Philippine Rise. This is not to mention, he added, the reported huge deposits of cold methane that could be extracted if there is already a technology to develop them into natural gas.

Aside from our continuing territorial disputes over the West Philippine Sea and foreign incursions into our Philippine Rise and other internal and external concerns, we had no-holds-barred discussions with Esperon about our country’s continuing insurgency problems; and   terrorist threats from local groups influenced by Islamic States of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).

He also pointed to new, “emerging non-traditional threats” that include drugs, cyber-terrorism and trafficking of persons.

Like President Duterte, Esperon candidly talked about these national security matters before this news forum, citing the important role of media to inform and correctly relay the message to the public.

During the Cabinet meeting last Monday at Malacanang, Esperon disclosed the President approved the P2.5 billion procurement of maritime research/survey ship in the 2018 budget of the Department of Energy for deployment to Philippine Rise and the West Philippine Sea to look for these deep water resources.

There are even talks about huge deposits of deuterium in the Philippine Rise, he quipped. Deuterium is a colorless, odorless gas. It is easily ignited. Once ignited it burns with a pale blue, almost invisible flame.

Thus, Esperon is confident to say the Philippine Rise can spur the “blue economy” for the country once these natural abundant resources lying beneath there are fully tapped.