The Foreign Service Institute and Oceana Philippines recently gathered relevant agencies, members of the academe, and stakeholders to discuss future plans to sustain and further strengthen the protection of the Philippine Rise.
President Rodrigo Duterte on May 16, 2017 signed Executive Order No. 25, renaming Benham Rise to Philippine Rise, a 24.4-million-hectare undersea region located in the Philippine Sea, approximately 250 kilometers east of the northern coastline of Dinapigue, Isabela.
A day before the first anniversary of the renaming, Duterte signed a presidential proclamation to protect 50,000 hectares of the Philippine Rise as a “strict protection zone.”
The protected area includes Benham Bank, which is around 17,000 hectares, declared as a no-take zone, and will be closed to any human activities except for scientific research.
Duterte said the presidential proclamation includes the requirement for continuous assessment of coral reef and fish species, which he said is “vital for the management of the Philippine Rise and its resources.” He also committed to capacitate Filipino scientists to fulfill their mandates in conducting scientific research in the Philippine Rise.
But despite the presidential proclamation, Dr. Jay Batongbacal, director of UP Institute for Maritime Affairs and Law of the Sea, during the roundtable discussion dubbed “After Philippine Rise Proclamation: What’s Next?,” expressed his alarm about the lack of security around Philippine Rise, which should be subjected to surveillance.
“Philippines should be on guard to ensure that even if other countries have military troops, we won’t back out,” he said. “We should also assert our right and honor to name features in the Philippine Rise, but sad to say we failed to stop a country from doing that.”
Early this year, Chinese researchers performed surveys in the Rise and named five of its features.
Another issue pointed out during the discussion was the need to boost food security measures and develop new fishing grounds for fish sufficiency.
Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources assistant director Sammy Malvas proposed ways to secure food sufficiency and biodiversity conservation in the country; continue fisheries development efforts in the Philippine Rise (Payao Development and Livelihood Support for fishers, among others); strengthen collaboration among government agencies, the academe, and civil service groups; and expand research and conduct more oceanographic surveys.
The formal declaration of the Philippine Rise as a fisheries management area of FMA signifies the need to sustainably fish in the area, to ensure future generations would still have fish to eat.
Oceana Philippine vice president Gloria Estenzo Ramos underlined the need for “strong collaboration for the protection and conservation of the Philippine Rise,” and to restore and conserve the health, richness, and abundance of other marine areas in the country.
In his concluding remarks, FSI director general Claro Cristobal emphasized that cooperation between and among agencies and stakeholders is key in the protection and preservation of the Philippine Rise.
The cooperation in the domestic sphere, said Cristobal, serves as the basis of how the Philippine government will pursue its interests in the international community.
Photos courtesy of Oceana/UPLB