The Foreign Service Institute and Oceana Philippines recently gathered relevant agencies, members of the academe, and stakeholders to discuss future plans to sustain and further strengthen the protection of the Philippine Rise. President Rodrigo Duterte on May 16, 2017 signed Executive Order No. 25, renaming Benham Rise to Philippine Rise, a 24.4-million-hectare undersea region located in the Philippine Sea, approximately 250 kilometers east of the northern coastline of Dinapigue, Isabela. A day before the first anniversary of the renaming, Duterte signed a presidential proclamation to protect 50,000 hectares of the Philippine Rise as a “strict protection zone.”

What’s next for Philippine Rise. (2018, August 7). Manila Standard, p. C1.