National flag to be planted on PH Rise on Independence Day

Navy personnel show members of media the fiberglass flag that will be planted 57 meters underwater of the Philippine Rise in the Philippine Sea on Independence Day, June 12, 2017. INQUIRER.NET / FRANCES MANGOSING

ABOARD BRP DAVAO DEL SUR – Military and civilian divers will plant the national colors underwater Philippine Rise (formerly Benham Rise) today, Independence Day.

Lt. Col. Isagani Nato, spokesperson of the Northern Luzon Command, said the Philippine flag made of fiberglass would be hoisted on a concrete base set 57 meters underwater.

Nato said the fiberglass flag, which was presented to media Sunday night, would be less prone to damage.

READ: Duterte renames Benham Rise Philippine Rise

Military and technical divers aboard the Navy’s newest and biggest ship, BRP Davao del Sur (LD-602), will plant the flag Monday morning.

The stainless steel flag pole is 14 meters long. The flag itself is 3 feet high and 4.5 feet wide.

Nato said there were plans to set up “floating installations” to mark place of the underwater flag.

“It can be used as a safe haven to attract more fishermen to go fishing,” he said.

The underwater flag-raising activity, the first of its kind on the Philippine Rise, aims “to assert ownership of this maritime zone and raise its strategic value.”

The United Nations granted the Philippines’ claim to the Philippine Rise as an extension of the country’s continental shelf in 2012. The undersea region and biodiversity hotspot lies east of Luzon in the Pacific Ocean.

The 13-million-hectare undersea plateau is part of the country’s exclusive economic zone and is outside of China’s nine-dash-line claim in the South China Sea.

Chinese survey ships were spotted in the Philippine Rise for months late last year, prompting President Rodrigo Duterte to rename Benham Rise to Philippine Rise through Executive Order No. 25 dated May 16. CBB