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Philippine Rise
Benham Rise Kalipung-awan (Catanduanon)
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Location	Philippine Sea
Nearest city	Ilagan, Philippines
Coordinates	16°30′N 124°45′E / 16.500°N 124.750°E / 16.500; 124.750
Area	13,000,000 ha (50,000 sq mi)
Designation	Protected food supply exclusive zone
Designated	May 2017
Governing body	Government of the Philippines (recognized by the United Nations since 2012)

The Philippine Rise (Filipino: Talampas ng Pilipinas), formally designated as Benham Rise, is an extinct volcanic ridge located in the Philippine Sea approximately 250 kilometers (160 mi) east of the northern coastline of Dinapigue, Isabela. The feature has long been known to the people of Catanduanes as Kalipung-awan, which literally means “loneliness from an isolated place”, since the precolonial era.

Under the Philippine Sea lie a number of basins including the West Philippine Basin, inside of which is located the Central Basin Fault (CBF). Philippine Rise is located in the CBF and its geologic basement is probably a micro-continent. Several scientific surveys have been made on the feature to study its nature and its impact on tectonic subduction, including one about its effects on the 1990 Luzon earthquake.

The Philippines claimed this feature as part of its continental shelf in a claim filed with the United Nations Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf on April 8, 2009, and which was approved under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) in 2012. The rise is designated as a “protected food supply exclusive zone” by the Philippine government since May 2017. Mining and oil exploration are banned in the area as it is protected. The feature was renamed as "Philippine Rise" by Executive Order No. 25 on May 16, 2017 and by The Philippine Maritime Zones Act on November 8, 2024.

History

Survey by Admiral Benham

The landform was presumably named after Admiral Andrew Ellicot Kennedy Benham (1832–1905) by American surveyors who probably studied the geological feature. He was a United States Navy officer, who served with both the South Atlantic and West Gulf Blockading Squadrons during the American Civil War.

Studies following the 1990 Luzon earthquake

There has been speculation in the scientific community about the nature of the landform. Following the major July 16 1990 Luzon earthquake, scientists reconsidered their fault models and decided it likely that Philippine Plateau has similarly displaced the Philippine Fault System to the west. After analyzing older models such as that of Pinet and Stephan (1989), scientists reconsidered their fault models. They thought it highly likely that the Philippine Plateau is still displacing the Central Luzon and the Philippine Fault System to the west, which may have been a factor in such a catastrophic earthquake. The 20- to 50-second wave of the 1990 quake that developed a new east–west sub-fault was so strong that it terminated disastrously in the city of Baguio in Benguet, Cordillera. Several scientific surveys, conducted between 2004 and 2008, collected hydrographic data that determined the morphology of the seabed in the region.

United Nations recognition of the Philippine claim

Despite its proximity to the archipelago, the plateau was previously not included in charted territory of the country. On April 8, 2009, the Republic of the Philippines lodged a partial territorial waters claim with the United Nations Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf in relation to the continental shelf in the region of the Philippine Rise. It was submitted as part of petition expanding the archipelago's baselines and exclusive economic zone through a law that also included other claims involving disputed territories of the Kalayaan Islands (Spratly Islands) and Scarborough Shoal.

Congress then enacted the bill of Senator Miriam Defensor Santiago, now known as Republic Act No. 9522, or the Archipelagic Baselines Law, as the basis of the claim. It asserted that, according to scientific data based on seismic, magnetic, other geological features, the Philippine Rise is an extension of the Philippines’ continental shelf. The claim is only a partial claim since the law that allows the Philippines to expand its territorial boundaries also includes islands in the South China Sea.

The Philippines filed its claim for Benham Rise in 2008 in compliance with the requirements of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Seas. The UN officially approved the claim in April 2012 under the administration of President Benigno Aquino III. It was the first claim of the Philippines approved by an international body since the colonial era.

After Chinese survey ships were spotted in the region in 2017, Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte suggested that the plateau be renamed to emphasize Philippine sovereignty over the area. Soon after, the Department of Foreign Affairs announced plans to come up with a new name. In May 2017, the Philippine government officially adopted the name “Philippine Rise” for the feature and designated the area as a “protected food supply exclusive zone” and prohibited mining and oil exploration in the Philippine Plateau, angering China in the process. China maintained that the Philippines has no sovereign rights or sovereignty over the Philippine Rise despite a UN-backed international ruling in 2012 that says otherwise.

Chinese research and naming of features in 2018

In January 2018, Filipino Congressman Gary Alejano revealed that the Department of Foreign Affairs had approved the Chinese Institute of Oceanology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences together with the Marine Science Institute of the University of the Philippines to perform a scientific survey of the Rise.

In February, Duterte‘s Secretary of Agriculture Emmanuel Piñol told media the President had ordered the halting of all foreign research in the Philippine Rise; however, that conducted by the Chinese Academy of Sciences was already finished two days before the order.

On February 12, 2018, the International Hydrographic Organization approved the names proposed by China for five features in the Philippine Rise after China had submitted its findings to the organization. The names given by China were all in Chinese, namely, Jinghao Seamount (some 70 nautical miles east of Cagayan), Tianbao Seamount (some 70 nautical miles east of Cagayan), Haidonquing Seamount (east at 190 nautical miles), Cuiqiao Hill, and Jujiu Seamount, the last two form the central peaks of the Philippine Rise undersea geological province. The Chinese naming of the features was met public protests in the Philippines. Malacañang Palace announced it objection, and non-recognition of the Chinese names, adding it will appeal for their rejection with the International Hydrographic Organization. The Philippine government also said their embassy in Beijing will coordinate with the Chinese government on the issue. The Palace announced the following day that government intended to give Philippine names to the features of the Philippine Rise. However, a few hours later, Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque clarified that China’s renaming of sea features “was a scientific process and not a political one”, adding “Whoever made the discovery gets to decide what these are called.”

On February 16, the Philippine government announced they have sent military personnel into the Cagayan Valley to guard the Rise. Two days later, it was revealed that China intended to name a total of 142 features. On February 26, the Department of Foreign Affairs stated during a Senate investigation that China actually surveyed the Rise in 2017 without any Philippine-issued permit, citing the lack of capability to detect illegal entry.

Discovery of Apolaki Caldera

The world’s largest caldera with a diameter of 150 kilometers was discovered by Jenny Anne Baretto, a Filipino marine geophysicist. It was named after Apolaki, a precolonial god of the sun and war.

Geology

Philippine Rise is a submerged extinct volcanic ridge located at 16.5°N, 124.7°E off the coast of Luzon, with the size of about 250 km in diameter and rises over 2,000 meters (2 km.) above the sea floor, from below 5,000 meters (5 km.) below sea level to above 3,000 meters (3 km.) below sea level. Its area is close to the Philippine Seamount, located at 15.8°N, 124.2°E. The precise location is somewhere near the east of the Philippine Trench and near the south of the East Luzon Trench, both of which absorb the subducting force of the Philippine Sea Plate under the Philippine Mobile Belt, a collage of large blocks of that crust that amalgamated prior to the collision of the Philippine Sea Plate with the Eurasian Plate.

The origin of the landform, along with the nearby Urdaneta Plateau (a remnant of a mantle plume), is identified in one study as at least five sequences of propagating rifts, probably triggered by mantle flowing away from the mantle thermal anomaly. Its presence of the landform disrupts the continuity of this region (known as the Philippine-East Luzon Trench) by continuously colliding with the Sierra Madre mountain range of eastern portion of the island of Luzon. Though it is generally thought that the Philippine Sea Plate is being subducted under the Philippine Mobile Belt, under the rules of tectonic subduction, there appears to be a resistance to this because of the presence of the landform, and instead, the plate is being displaced into the northern portion of Luzon to the west.

The geophysical features of the plateau may have been the result of an early Miocene collision event between the Philippine Rise and the eastern margin of Luzon, which may have also allowed the inception of the NW striking strand of the Philippine fault. These forces may have impacted the shape of the island of Luzon because of the basaltic sea floor resisting the subduction that may have also cause the bending of the Philippine Fault. The active basins in Central Luzon, which trace an asymmetrical V shape, is the best place to observe recent tectonic evolution of the fault system.

The Benham Bank is the shallowest point of the Philippine Rise.

Cultural and strategic significance

The Philippine Rise has long been part of Filipino culture, particularly of people native to Catanduanes who have explored and fished the area long before the colonial era. Called Kalipung-awan (roughly translated from the Bikol languages as “loneliness in an isolated place”) is celebrated in Catandunganons literature, and a large portion of fish caught in the region come from the waters covering the Philippine Rise. Its poetic name come from fisherfolk who spend days in the vast and lonely waters seldom visited by other ethnic groups. Its location east of Luzon, southeast of Taiwan, and west of the United States territory of Guam also makes gives it strategic geopolitical importance.

In May 2017, the feature was designated by the Philippines as a “protected food supply exclusive zone”, prohibiting mining and oil exploration. To commemorate the first anniversary of the Philippine government’s renaming of the feature, 500 square kilometers (190 sq mi) of the feature was declared a “Strict Protection Zone” reserved exclusively for scientific research, while about 3,000 square kilometers (1,200 sq mi) was designated a “Special Fisheries Management Area“.

References

1. "FAST FACTS: What you should know about Philippine Rise". March 18, 2017.
2. ^ "Benham Rise, now known as PHL Rise, declared Protected Food Supply Exclusive Zone". May 11, 2017.
3. ^ Bajo, Anna Felicia (November 8, 2024). "Marcos signs new laws asserting PH's sovereign rights in WPS". GMA News Online.
4. "On untranslatable words from Philippine languages". CNN Philippines. Archived from the original on December 18, 2020. Retrieved October 26, 2019.
5. Avendaño, Christine O. "Duterte renames Benham Rise Philippine Rise". Philippine Daily Inquirer.
6. Pulta, Benjamin. "What is the Philippine Rise?". Philippine News Agency. Retrieved June 12, 2021.
7. Hickey-Vargas, R.; Sato, H.; Machida, S.; Ishii, T.; Hirano, N.; Yumul, G.; Fujioka, K. (2001). "Isotopic Characteristics of Basalts From the Central Basin Fault, West Philippine Basin". AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts. 2001. Harvard University: T41C–0893. Bibcode:2001AGUFM.T41C0893H. Fall Meeting 2001
8. Avijit Gupta (February 24, 2005). The physical geography of Southeast Asia (2005 ed.). Oxford University Press. p. 14. ISBN 0-19-924802-8. - Total pages: 440
9. ^ "UN approves PH territorial claim to Benham Rise". Philippine Daily Inquirer. Retrieved April 28, 2012.
10. Viray, P.L. (May 22, 2017). "Duterte renames 'Benham Rise' to 'Philippine Rise'". The Philippine Star. Retrieved May 22, 2017.
11. ^ "[ EXECUTIVE ORDER NO. 25, May 16, 2017 ]". Philippine Supreme Court E-Library.
12. "Benham One-Name Study". Guild of One-Name Studies. March 8, 2008. Archived from the original on September 8, 2009. Retrieved September 27, 2009.
13. Pinet and Stephan (1989) in Tectonics of Circum-Pacific Continental Margins ISBN 90-6764-132-4 p.179
14. ^ Tessa Jamandre (April 12, 2009). "RP files claim over Benham Rise with UN". verafiles.org. Archived from the original on April 26, 2009. Retrieved September 27, 2009.
15. "Submissions, through the Secretary-General of the United Nations, to the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf, pursuant to article 76, paragraph 8, of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea of 10 December 1982". United Nations Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf. May 28, 2009. Retrieved May 29, 2009.
16. UN to decide on Phl claim on 13-M hectare Benham Rise, August 16, 2011, Philippine Star.
17. UN approves PH territorial claim to Benham Rise, April 28, 2012, Philippine Daily Inquirer.
18. DOE to assess resource potential of Benham Rise:http://www.philstar.com/headlines/2014/06/09/1332626/doe-assess-resource-potential-benham-rise
19. Staff (April 2, 2017). "Duterte wants to rename Benham Rise". Filipino Times. Archived from the original on April 3, 2017. Retrieved April 2, 2017.
20. ^ Santos, Eimor (May 12, 2017). "Benham Rise is now Philippine Rise, and a protected food supply zone – Piñol". CNN Philippines. Archived from the original on May 15, 2017. Retrieved May 13, 2017.
21. Amurao, George (January 18, 2018). "China eyes Philippines' strategic eastern shores". Asia Times.
22. "Duterte orders no more foreign explorations in Benham Rise —Piñol". GMA News. Retrieved December 8, 2018.
23. "China named 5 undersea features at PH Rise, says expert". ABS-CBN News. Retrieved December 8, 2018.
24. "China named 5 undersea features at PH Rise – expert | Inquirer Globalnation". Philippine Daily Inquirer. Retrieved December 8, 2018.
25. Ranada, Pia. "Philippines rejects Chinese names for Benham Rise features". Rappler.
26. "Palace: PH won't recognize Chinese names of Benham Rise features". CNN Philippines. Archived from the original on January 24, 2021. Retrieved October 26, 2019.
27. "Gov't to give PH names to Benham Rise features named by China". CNN Philippines. Archived from the original on June 15, 2020. Retrieved December 8, 2018.
28. "Chinese names in PH rise? No problem, says Palace | Inquirer Globalnation". Philippine Daily Inquirer. Retrieved December 8, 2018.
29. Gagalac, Ron. "Gov't deploys troops to guard Philippine Rise". ABS-CBN News. Retrieved December 8, 2018.
30. "China wants to name 142 ocean features". The Philippine Star. Retrieved December 8, 2018.
31. Elemia, Camille. "Gov't admits China surveyed Benham Rise without permit". Rappler. Retrieved December 8, 2018.
32. Mangosing, Frances (October 21, 2019). "Filipina scientist discovers 'world's largest caldera' in Philippine Rise". Philippine Daily Inquirer. Archived from the original on December 10, 2019. Retrieved October 21, 2019.
33. "Filipina scientist discovers world's largest caldera on Benham Rise". ABS-CBN News. October 21, 2019. Retrieved October 21, 2019.
34. Hashimoto, M, ed., (1981) Accretion Tectonics in the Circum-Pacific Regions, ISBN 90-277-1561-0 p299
35. Rangin and Pubellier (1990) in Tectonics of Circum-Pacific Continental Margins ISBN 90-6764-132-4 p149
36. Ryuichie, Shinjo; Ni Xianglonga; Wu Shiguoc (2008). "Tectonics in the Northwestern West Philippine Basin". Journal of China University of Geosciences. 19 (3): 191–199. Bibcode:2008JCUG...19..191X. doi:10.1016/S1002-0705(08)60038-2.
37. Rangin and Pubellier (1990) in Tectonics of Circum-Pacific Continental Margins ISBN 90-6764-132-4, p149
38. Deschamps and Lallemand (2003) in Intra-Oceanic Subduction Systems: Tectonic and Magmatic Processes ISBN 1-86239-147-5 p165
39. Ringenbach, J. C.; N. Pinet; J. F. Stephan; J. Delteil (1993). "Structural variety and tectonic evolution of strike-slip basins related to the Philippine Fault System, northern Luzon, Philippines". Tectonics. 12 (1): 187–203. Bibcode:1993Tecto..12..187R. doi:10.1029/92TC01968. Archived from the original on June 6, 2011. Retrieved September 27, 2009.
40. Rantucci, Giovanni (October 1994). "Geological disasters in the Philippines : The July 1990 earthquake and the June 1991 eruption of Mount Pinatubo". United Nations. ISDR. Retrieved September 27, 2009., Document ID:13258
41. Stashwick, Steven (March 31, 2017). "China May Have Been Surveying Strategic Waters East of Philippines". The Diplomat. Retrieved March 31, 2017. The Benham Rise is directly south of the eastern approaches to the Luzon Strait between Taiwan and the Philippines, which is the main access route from the Western Pacific Ocean to the South China Sea. In a conflict, control of that strait would dictate whether China's South Sea Fleet could "break out" of the South China Sea into the Western Pacific to the waters between the first and second island chains, or if the U.S. Navy could move forces into the South China Sea to conduct its own combat operations.
42. Lopez, Virgil (May 15, 2018). "Duterte declares parts of Benham Rise a marine protected area". GMA News. Retrieved May 16, 2018.

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