President Rodrigo Duterte might board the Philippine Navy’s biggest warship, the BRP Gegorio del Pilar when the Philippine chief executive visits Philippine Rise or Benham Rise next week to assert claim that the region is part of the county’s territory, a Palace source said.
In his speech in Mabolo, Cebu City, the President reiterated that he would sail to the Philippine Rise to announce to the world that the Philippine Rise belongs to the Philippines.
The President made the announcement in his speech during an assembly of free masons in Davao City, saying he would sail to the Philippine Rise to make known that the region is part of the country’s territory.
Philippine Rise is an offshore frontier facing the Pacific Ocean that is about 24 million hectares in size and is in the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone, an area where nations have internationally recognized the country’s exclusive rights to exploit fish and fuel resources, and the continental shelf further out in the ocean.
President Duterte will board the BRP Gregorio del Pilar, a frigate of the Philippine Navy and the lead ship of the of her class, a Palace official who declined to be named, said.