Citing the need to monitor and maintain the high biodiversity and pristine habitats in the Philippine Rise Marine Resource Reserve (PMRR), Senator Cynthia Villar wants to place it under the National Integrated Protected Areas System (NIPAS).
The senator said legislation of the PMRR will not only institutionalize and provide funds for its management, but will also be in keeping with our exercise of Philippine sovereignty over our waters and resources.
Villar has filed Senate Bill 519 or An Act Declaring a portion of Philippine Rise within the exclusive economic Zone (EEZ) of the Philippine Sea as a protected area with the category of Marine Resource Reserve under NIPAS.
As chairperson of the Senate environment committee, the senator said this would be referred to as PMRR.
The bill also seeks to establish a mechanism that would ensure measures towards this objective are enforced and implemented.
The majority of the Philippine Rise including the Benham Bank Seamount, has always been within the Philippines EEZ.
The United Nations Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf (UN-CLCS) adopted the recommendation of the Philippines on the limits of our Continental Shelf.
“Following the discoveries in the Benham Rise, four more research expeditions were conducted in 2016, 2018, 2019 and 2022 to further assess its biodiversity and extent of habitats,” said Villar.
She noted that the data and information obtained from the past expeditions supported the recognition of the Philippine Rise as an Ecologically and Biologically Significant Marine Area (EBSMA) under the UN Convention on Biological Diversity.
This also refers to the declaration of a portion of the Philippine Rise, namely Benham Bank, and its surrounding waters as a marine resource reserve under NIPAS in 2018 by virtue of Presidential Proclamation 489.
