Supreme Court Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio explained that the Philippines enjoys sovereign rights but does not have sovereignty over the plateau, which is believed to hold huge amounts of minerals and oil, apart from being home to diverse marine life regularly gathered by Filipino fishermen for generations. According to Carpio, our sovereign rights are “less than sovereignty,” or outright ownership, based on a ruling of the United Nations Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf. As long as the Chinese are just passing through and conducting research, they can go in and out of Benham Rise, like everyone else; if they start trying to attempt the funny stuff they did on our western seaboard, then we can begin making noise—a whole lot of it, since that’s about all we can do.

Robles, J. (2017, March 15). Benham on the rise. Manila Standard, pp. A4, A5.