MANILA — The decision of a Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC)-International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) committee allowing China to name certain undersea features in the Philippine Rise was made without consultation with the Philippine government.
This was the statement made by National Security Adviser Hermogenes Esperon after a maritime law expert, Jay Batongbacal was quoted in a report as saying that the IOC-IHO Subcommittee on Undersea Feature Names (SCUFN) approved five names China proposed in 2017.
“The decision of the SCUFN was made without due consultation with the Philippine Government,” Esperon said in a statement.
“We do not recognize the Chinese names given to these undersea features in the Philippine Rise,” he added.
Esperon pointed out that as a matter of procedure, the approval of proposals for the naming of undersea features are decided upon solely by the 12-member SCUFN composed of its chair, Germany, and members China, Japan, South Korea, New Zealand, Argentina, Chile, Mexico, Brazil, Canada, Italy, and Russia.
He noted that decisions by the SCUFN are deemed as “final and non-appealable.”
But he explained that the SCUFN decided to suspend last year the processing of pending proposals for the naming of undersea features worldwide because of the numerous complaints from many countries regarding its supposed arbitrary and unregulated decision-making process.
Esperon said that the government’s diplomatic posts have been alerted against such future applications in Philippine waters.
He also revealed that the Philippine government has raised its objection to China’s recent initiatives during the meeting of the Philippines-China Bilateral Consultative Mechanism held on Tuesday (Feb. 13).
“While the approval by the SCUFN does not confer to the applicant country sovereignty and jurisdiction over the seamounts, the Philippine government had nonetheless raised its objection to China’s recent initiatives, during the meeting of the Philippines-China Bilateral Consultative Mechanism held on 13 February 2018,” Esperon said.
Filipino names
Department of National Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana earlier said that he would discuss possible Filipino names to give to the five underwater features in the Philippine Rise with Esperon and other members of the cabinet.
“Pag-uusapan pa namin ni NSA (Esperon) and ibang Cabinet members. (We will talk about it with NSA and other Cabinet members) As for me, I would also give these features Philippine names,” Lorenzana said.
Malacañang said the Philippine Embassy in Beijing has already raised its concern and would consider notifying the IHO Chair about this development.
“They are likewise considering a recommendation to officially notify the Chair of the International Hydrographic Organization — Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission General Bathymetric Chart of the Oceans (IHO-IOC GEBCO) Sub-Committee on Undersea Feature Names (SCUFN),” Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque Jr. said in a statement.
He noted that the Philippines is not a member of the 12-member state SCUFN.
Three of the five features given Chinese names were reportedly “discovered” during a survey by the Li Shiguang Hao of the China Navy Hydrographic Office in 2004 and the names were submitted to IHO for consideration in 2014.
The remaining two features were “discovered” by the same ship but proposals for names came in 2016. The features named are the Jinghao and Tianbao Seamounts said to be within 70 nautical miles east of Cagayan, and the Haidonquing Seamount located east at 190 nautical miles.
The other two named Cuiqiao Hill and Jujiu Seamount forms the central peaks of the Philippine Rise undersea geological province itself, said Batongbacal. (Azer Parrocha/PNA)
