Senate panel to tackle Benham Rise security concerns on Wednesday

Security and defense concerns over Benham Rise will be tackled in a joint committee hearing in the Senate on Wednesday.

This will be the second hearing on Senate Bill No. 312, or the Benham Rise Development Authority Act, authored by Sen. Sonny Angara. It will be conducted by the Senate committees on Economic Affairs and Finance.

In a statement, Senate economic affairs committee chair Sherwin Gatchalian said they hope "to paint a clearer picture of the facts as we explore long-term strategies to uphold and defend our sovereign rights over the Benham Rise."

Gatchalian clarified that the hearing will not be for pinning blame amid recent reports of suspicious Chinese activities there last year.

"The primary purpose of this hearing will be to craft a comprehensive executive-legislative strategy for the long-term defense and development of the Benham Rise. If the political opposition is expecting a political fault-finding mission, then they will surely be disappointed," he said.

Representatives from the Departments of Foreign Affairs (DFA) and National Defense (DND) will be invited to the hearing.

They will be asked "to shed light on the details of the Chinese incursion into the area and any diplomatic exchanges between the Philippine and Chinese officials on the matter."

The proceedings will also tackle biodiversity conservation in the area, as well as management of marine and energy resources there.

Gatchalian noted that the "urgent need to conduct extensive scientific research" in the said continental shelf—a part of the Philippines' exclusive economic zone (EEZ)—"to fully discover how its development will benefit the Filipino people."

Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana had revealed that a Chinese survey ship was spotted in Benham Rise a number of times in a period of three months last year.

China had denied that the ship was conducting a survey on the Philippine's undersea region and was just passing through in exercise of the “freedom of navigation” and “right to innocent passage.” —Rose-An Jessica Dioquino/ALG/BM, GMA News