Philippines Secures Filipino Names for 25 Undersea Features
SOUTH KOREA 18 July 2024 – The Philippines charted a successful course at the recent 37th meeting of the IHO-IOC General Bathymetric Chart of the Oceans (GEBCO) Sub-Committee on Undersea Feature Names (SCUFN-37) hosted by the Korea Institute of Geoscience and Mineral Resources.
The Philippines actively participated in SCUFN-37 by sharing valuable data on the ocean floor and proposing names for 25 undersea features located beyond the outer limits of the territorial seas. This demonstrates the Philippines’ continued support for the important work of the IHO-IOC GEBCO to provide the most authoritative publicly available bathymetry of the ocean. The Philippines also supported SCUFN’s mandate to standardize names for undersea features in international waters.
All of the Philippines’ proposed names were accepted during the meeting and will appear in the GEBCO Undersea Feature Names Gazetteer.
Reaffirming the primacy of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) as the “constitution of the ocean”, the Philippines urged SCUFN to continue exercising its mandate to consider naming proposals for undersea features in international waters, i.e., areas beyond the outer limits of the territorial seas, including in the South China Sea, and to approve the same based purely on the technical and scientific merits in line with international rules and standards, and the SCUFN Guidelines for the Standardization of Undersea Feature Names.
Meanwhile, the Philippine delegation also fostered international collaboration by sharing their knowledge, best practices and expertise on ocean mapping and naming proposals with the delegations of other countries, particularly those who were new to SCUFN meetings.
The Philippine delegation was led by National Mapping and Resource Information Authority (NAMRIA) Administrator, Undersecretary Peter N. Tiangco, PhD, and included Cdr. Aaron Andro Ching and Engr. Dennis Arsenio Bringas from NAMRIA, and Mr. Joel Peralta from the Department of Foreign Affairs Maritime and Ocean Affairs Office.
SCUFN is composed of 12 members, with 6 experts appointed by the International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) and 6 experts appointed by the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC). A report on the decisions and actions taken at SCUFN-37, including on the Philippines' successful naming proposals, will be published at the IHO website by September 2024. The next SCUFN meeting will be hosted by Indonesia in November 2025.
Notably, the Philippines, through its NAMRIA, actively contributes to the international efforts to map the entire ocean floor, including under the Nippon Foundation-GEBCO Seabed 2030 Project. This underscores the continued commitment of the Philippines in advancing knowledge of the ocean for the benefit of the international community as a whole, and for present and future generations. END
