MANILA, Philippines — Sen. Cynthia Villar wants the Philippine Rise included in the National Integrated Protected Areas System or NIPAS for easy monitoring and maintenance of its biodiversity and habitat.
The Philippine Rise, formerly known as Benham Rise, is located more than 500 kilometers east of Luzon.
Villar, chair of the committee on environment and natural resources, filed Senate Bill 519 or “an act declaring a portion of the Philippine Rise as a protected area with the category of Marine Resource Reserve under NIPAS.”
In May 2017, then president Rodrigo Duterte issued an executive order renaming Benham Rise to Philippine Rise.
The legislation, Villar said, would not only institutionalize and provide funds for the management of the Philippine Rise, but would also exercise sovereignty in the country’s territorial waters and marine resources.
The proposal seeks to ensure that measures crafted for this objective are well implemented.
A vast portion of the Philippine Rise including the Benham Bank Seamount is located within the Philippines’ 200-mile exclusive economic zone.
Villar said data obtained from past expeditions supported the recognition of the Philippine Rise as an ecologically and biologically significant marine area.
The bill also provides that the Bureau of Aquatic Resources, Armed Forces of the Philippines, Philippine Coast Guard and Philippine National Police Maritime Group should patrol the area to secure Filipino fishermen and enforce fisheries and conservation laws.