MANILA, Philippines — The government is expected to protest the incursions in the Philippine Rise, an area off the province of Aurora that is part of the Philippines' continental shelf.
"When it comes to the Philippine Rise, the Department of Foreign Affairs will take the necessary course of action which is to file a diplomatic protest," acting presidential spokesman Martin Andanar said at a press briefing Wednesday.
Andanar was asked to react to the statement of National Security Council deputy director general Rufino Lopez, who had revealed that Chinese ships have been intruding into the Philippine Rise.
During a Senate hearing last Tuesday, Lopez was asked whether there are incursions in the Philippine Rise that are similar to the incidents reported in 2018.
Lopez said there are still incursions in the area and that the Navy and the Coast Guard are "trying their best to conduct proper reports of all of these incursions.”
Formerly called Benham Rise, the Philippine Rise is a 13-million hectare submerged continental shelf off Aurora. The Philippines has sovereign rights over the area, which means that the country has the exclusive right to explore and exploit the natural and non-living resources found in it.
The United Nations declared the underwater plateau as part of the country's continental shelf in 2012.
The undersea landmass was renamed to Philippine Rise through Executive Order No. 25 signed by President Duterte in 2017.
The Philippines and China are embroiled in a maritime dispute over some parts of the South China Sea, a busy sealane where more than $5 trillion in ship-borne trade passes through every year.
In 2016, a Hague-based arbitral court voided China's wide-reaching claim in the South China Sea but the Chinese government refused to recognize the ruling.