President Duterte is planning to visit the Philippine Rise, also known as Benham Rise, next week to assert the country's ownership of the massive undersea region. The President has bared his upcoming voyage to the Philippine Rise as he vowed to wage war in the event any foreign power tries to seize control of the Philippine territory. "Next week, I'm going to sail, set sail, I'm going to Benham Rise and I will make a statement there that nobody but nobody owns this place including the continental shelf, the underground land mass that extends under the sea," Duterte said before an assembly of the Most Worshipful Grand Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons of the Philippines in Davao City last Thursday.

Kabiling, G. D. (2018, April 28). Duterte visiting PH Rise, Cautions intruders. Manila Bulletin, p. 2.