The noise surrounding the Benham Rise issue—most recently, news of Chinese exploration in the 24-hectare region—has unduly sidelined a practical aspect of an otherwise complex geopolitical issue.
While we can look at the dispute from the lens of sovereignty and diplomacy, rarely discussed is the vast economic impact a marine configuration like Benham Rise can contribute to a country like the Philippines. In particular, it’s important to also ask just what kind of natural resources might be harnessed from the area, including food source and mineral wealth. Done well, the Benham Rise just might be a game-changer.
Luckily, in the ongoing committee hearings on a proposal to create a Benham Rise Development Authority, the committee’s chairman, Senator Sherwin Gatchalian, revealed that the gigantic undersea plateau has potential methane hydrates that could help contribute to solving the country’s energy woes.
“There are many parties that want to go into explorations with us, particularly given the existence of methane hydrates; it will be good for research,” he said.
More than a year ago, a team of marine scientists also found—unsurprisingly—a massive wealth of marine life in the territory, from soft and hard corals, fish and algae and sponges, including a hundred-percent coral cover in multiple sites.
“We saw terraces of corals, as far as the eye could see,” marine scientist Marianne Pan-Saniano, who was part of the mission, was quoted as saying. “It’s so exciting to know that we have such a vast and pristine coral reef ecosystem within Philippine territory.”
A separate expedition, this time composed of researchers aided by technical divers from the Philippine Navy and the Philippine Coast Guard, also documented a vast mesophotic reef ecosystem at depths of nearly 500 feet.
But if the Chinese reclamation projects and militarization of the South China Sea revealed anything, it is that doing nothing in such a fraught issue can be taken as inaction. Gatchalian even warned that a lack of urgency in terms of tapping this vast potential might serve as a tacit invitation for a party like China.
“What is important here is the formation of a long-term strategy, whether it is defense or other aspects,” he added.
But while comparisons with the situation at the South China Sea might come up, it is also crucial to stress the legal and technical dimensions of the issue, which ought to have implications on the way that a national policy or strategy is formulated. Unlike the reclaimed islands west of the country, to cite, the Benham Rise is neither an island, rock nor a low-tide elevation. It is a volcanic ridge, which is part of our extended continental shelf.
That means it’s important to make a legal distinction between “sovereign rights” instead of “sovereignty per se,” according to Article 77 of the United States Convention on the Law of the Sea, which gives a coastal state sovereign rights for the purpose of “exploring it and exploiting its natural resources.”
In another section of UNCLOS, the wording on the law is clear: the Philippines has full and exclusive sovereign rights over “mineral and other non-living resources of the seabed and subsoil together with living organisms belonging to sedentary species.”
In light of the news of Beijing naming some features of Benham Rise, it’s easy to understand the kind of angry reaction that the issue has habitually produced. Previously, Chinese applications for Maritime Scientific Research have been rejected because they refused to accommodate the required single Filipino scientist onboard—an undeniable red flag, so to speak.
Even so, while politically challenging, in the task of the gargantuan possibilities that the area raises, there is a benefit for the Philippines to collaborate with other countries, especially more powerful and richer ones. And this includes China. An outright knee-jerk rejection, while recognizing the necessary wariness, can be myopic.
As with many things, a sober approach is possibly the best. Maritime law expert Jay Batongbacal issues the reminder that Filipinos have been exploring the Benham Rise for years, including oceaonographic research cruises and at one point even sending a Philippine vessel—with full Filipino crew funded completely by the Philippine government—that successfully brought back surveys of the region.
Needless to say, paying attention to the geopolitical drama unfolding in the Benham Rise area and the economic repercussions of exploring the area are not mutually exclusive. In fact, they are mutually reinforcing. The clearer, more cohesive the political decision, the more certain the economic benefits will be for Filipinos.