Prof on Duterte’s Benham visit: Inaagaw ang harap ng bahay, sa likod dumepensa

A maritime security expert on Tuesday questioned the wisdom of President Rodrigo Duterte visiting the Benham Rise to press the country's ownership over the resource-rich undersea plateau east of Luzon.

According to Maki Pulido's report on "24 Oras", Professor Jay Batongbacal said Duterte should have instead visited the Philippine claims in the South China Sea, on the other side of the archipelago.

While the Benham Rise isn't the subject of claims by China, the Chinese have built artificial islands on reefs well within the Philippines' exclusive economic zone in the disputed waters west of the Philippines.

"Imagine mo ang bahay mo na merong dalawang bakuran, bakuran sa harap at bakuran sa likod," Batongbacal said.

"Meron kang kapit-bahay sinasakop na niya 'yung bakuran sa harap ang ginawa mo dun ka nagpunta sa likod at dun ka nagsabi na dedepensahan mo ang iyong pag-aari," he added.

Duterte promised to visit the Benham Rise, officially named the Philippine Rise, in order to assert the country's sovereign rights over the region. However, Duterte only reached as far as Casiguran Bay.

Duterte has sent a team of scientists who will conduct a month-long research in the region.

The rise, a 13-million hectare undersea plateau off Aurora province, is within the country’s 200-nautical-mile exclusive economic zone as recognized by the United Nations Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf in 2012.

The area is believed to be rich in gas, minerals and marine life. —Anna Felicia Bajo/NB, GMA News