President Rodrigo Duterte has approved the change of the name of Benham Rise an extended continental shelf east of the Philippines, to Philippine Rise.

This was contained in Executive Order No. 25, which Duterte signed on May 16.

"The undersea feature presently known as 'Benham Rise' in local and international maps and charts, shall henceforth be referred to as the 'Philippine Rise'," the EO said.

Benham Rise, which has an area approximately 24 million hectares in size, is located within the Philippine exclusive economic zone and continental shelf, as well as the outer limits of the continental shelf in accordance with the recommendations of the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf issue on April 12, 2012.

Duterte ordered the Department of Foreign Affairs, in consultation with the National Mapping and Resource Information Authority (Namria) and other relevant government agencies, to transmit "appropriate notifications" to concerned international organizations regarding the change in the name of the Benham Rise to Philippine Rise.

He also directed all departments, subdivisions, agencies and instrumentalities of the government to use and employ the name Philippine Rise in all official documents in referring to the undersea feature.

The official maps and charts of the Philippines that include the area referred to as Behmam Rise to be produced by NAMRIA shall indicate the name Philippine Rise instead, he added.

Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel Pinol earlier proposed to Duterte to build a structure on Benham Rise to be used to further explore and develop the area. Celerina Monte/DMS