Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana on Thursday said he has ordered the Navy to send a ship to Benham Rise, an underwater landmass 250 kilometers east of Luzon, to drive away Chinese survey vessels that have been spotted there. “The very concerning thing is they have several service ships plying this area, staying in one area sometimes for a month as if doing nothing. But we believe they are actually surveying the seabed,” he said. The United Nations Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf approved the Philippines’ undisputed territorial claim to Benham Rise in 2012, finding that the region is an extension of the country’s continental shelf.

Tuyay, F. (2017, March 10). PH wary of China ships on Benham. Manila Standard, pp. A1, A2.