By Camille Diola
MANILA, Philippines — Defense authorities have identified the Chinese vessel that stayed for three months in Benham Rise last year, the National Security Council chief said on Thursday.
"We have the name of the ship," retired military general Hermogenes Esperon said, stopping short of revealing the vessel's name. "It could conduct biological as well as hydrographic surveys, but we have no indications that it was surveying what was in the seabed as of now."
Esperon, who was answering senators' queries at a joint Senate hearing of the finance and economic affairs panels, said that the military is still profiling the vessel and is preparing a full report.
The Department of National Defense earlier this year raised concern over Chinese vessels spotted in Benham Rise off the northeastern portion of the Philippines' landmass. It said that one vessel lingered from September to November without a research permit.
The Chinese foreign ministry, however, invoked the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea's freedom of navigation and innocent passage provisions in justifying the vessels' presence over the Philippines' undersea territory.
Esperon, meanwhile, said that the length of the stay of the vessels indicates the activity was "not really simply innocent passage or freedom of navigation."
"Research was conducted but it could not be established where it was conducted, if it was outside the [Philippines' exclusive economic zone] or not," Esperon said at Wednesday's hearing.
Asked about the incident earlier this month, President Rodrigo Duterte's spokesperson insisted that the country has a research deal with Beijing allowing vessels in Benham Rise. The Department of Foreign Affairs and the DND denied knowledge of such an agreement.
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