The Department of Agriculture wants to increase the Philippines’ physical control of the Benham Rise by encouraging fishing communities on the east coast to fish more. According to the director of the Bureau of Fisheries and Aqua Resources, Asis G. Perez, “the actual evidence of ownership is utilization and full control of the Benham Rise.”
Claim over the Benham Rise was won by the Philippines under the United Nations Convention of the Law of the Sea back in 2012. An exploratory team was deployed by the DA-BFAR with the task to implement the law of the sea, as well as to assert that the area is within the country’s Exclusive Economic Zone.
