Chinese ships in Benham may spark Duterte impeachment: lawyer

President Rodrigo Duterte may be impeached if he allowed China to explore an undersea plateau off the Philippines' Pacific coast, an international law professor said Wednesday.
Duterte said Thursday he was "advised way ahead" before Chinese research vessels sailed over Benham Rise. Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana earlier expressed concern over the ships' presence.
"Under our Constitution, iyung ganyang activities, dapat under the full control of the state -- kahit exploration pa lang," said Jay Batongbacal, director of the University of the Philippines Institute for Maritime Affairs and Law of the Sea.
(Under our Constitution, such activities should be under the full control of the state -- even mere explorations.)
"Dapat nga nating malaman natin ano ba talagang nangyari dito dahil pwede ngang masabi na baka mamaya, may grounds for impeachment dito kasi culpable violation of the Constitution iyan 'pag ganyan."
(We need to know what really happened here because this may be grounds for impeachment as it could be a culpable violation of the Constitution.)

Batongbacal said he was astonished that Lorenzana seemed ignorant of the nearness of the Chinese boats.

Lorenzana had said Chinese boats had no business in those waters and that Beijing's guard of the go about as a "pure section" repudiated what he saw.

The Department of Foreign Affairs has asked the Chinese Embassy in Manila to clarify the occurrence.