Benham Rise a New Philippine Territory Confirmed by UN - Near Aurora

Breaking News: Philippines has a new territory, the Benham Rise which has 13 million hectare and located near Aurora. The Benham Rise is bigger than Luzon, it has 13 million hectare compared to Luzon which has 10.5 million-hectare.

Imagine an area bigger than the Philippines' biggest island, Luzon, that potentially contains steel-producing minerals and natural gas for domestic consumption or exportation.

This is Benham Rise, a 13-million hectare area off the coast of Aurora province, which the United Nations (UN) recently confirmed as part of the Philippines' continental shelf and territory.

“We own Benham Rise now,” Environment Secretary Ramon Paje said in a media interview, quoted in a Philippine Daily Inquirer story Saturday, April 28. “This is for future Filipinos.”

Unlike Scarborough Shoal and other portions of the South China Sea, no other country claims the area that is almost a quarter bigger than the 10.5-million hectare Luzon.

The UN approval means Benham Rise, an underwater plateau by definition, is an extension of the Philippines' continental shelf, an area rich in living and non-living resources like minerals and gas.

Based on the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), the continental shelf comprises the seabed and subsoil of the submarine areas 200 nautical miles (NM), or 370 kilometers, from a State's baselines or “edges.” Parts of the continental shelf that are not covered by the 200 NM provision, according to UNCLOS, need to be claimed and defended before the UN Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf (UNCLCS).

The UNCLCS approved Benham Rise as the Philippines' extended continental shelf 3 years after the country filed a claim and defended it before the UN commission. (The UNCLCS was formed under UNCLOS.)

source: rappler.com

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