MANILA – The Philippine Postal Corporation (PHLPost) issued stamps and official first-day covers to commemorate the “10th Anniversary of the adoption in full of the extended continental shelf (ECS) in the Philippine Rise”, the agency announced on Monday.
The Philippine Rise (formerly Benham Rise) is a 13 million-hectare undersea plateau that lies 216 kilometers east of Aurora province.
The ECS is estimated to be wider than the island of Luzon, according to the Maritime Research Information Center.
The stamps, released in coordination with the National Mapping and Resource Information Authority, reiterate the significance of the Philippines’ first successful validation of a claim in accordance with the 1982 Law of the Sea Convention and the first major expansion of its maritime boundaries since its declaration of exclusive economic zone in the 1970s.
A total of 45,000 copies were printed, to be sold at PHP12 each, and 5,400 official first-day covers to be sold to stamp collectors.
The ECS in the Philippine Rise was first suggested by Dr. Teodoro Santos of the University of the Philippines-National Institute of Geological Sciences.
It took years of research, data-gathering, analysis, and compilation headed by scientists, geologists, hydrographers, and cartographers as well as inter-organizational cooperation between state and international institutions to make the successful claim.
Stamps and official first-day covers are available at The Philatelic Counter of the Manila Central Post Office in Liwasang Bonifacio.
PHLPost is a government-owned and controlled corporation responsible for providing postal services in the Philippines. It also handles international postal delivery. (PNA)
