House bill filed for four-part Coast Guard modernization
MANILA, Philippines — A lawmaker has filed a bill that seeks to improve the Philippine Coast Guard’s capabilities through a four-part program. This comes amid Chinese aggressions against PCG vessels and other Filipino boats in the West Philippine Sea.
Rep. Leody Tarriela (Oriental Mindoro) filed on May 10 a bill seeking to modernize the Coast Guard through “state-of-the-art air and floating assets” and interoperable communication systems. The lawmaker noted that the PCG’s current capabilities are “insufficient to execute its mandates.”
“[The current maritime] challenges require the PCG to operate with the highest level of efficiency and effectiveness to safeguard the country’s maritime interests and territorial integrity,” Tarriela said in a joint press release with the Coast Guard on Sunday.
Aside from the house bill, Sen. Bong Go filed a separate PCG modernization proposal at the Senate.
Should Tarriela’s proposal turn into law, the four-part development program will take 12 years, with each part taking up three years to implement.
Four-part modernization program
While a copy of House bill 8028 or the “PCG Modernization Act” has yet to be made available on the Congress website as of writing, the joint statement said the bill seeks to start the modernization program by improving the agency’s maritime domain awareness capabilities.
The second leg will focus on infrastructure development and the acquisition of vessels and equipment that will help enhance the PCG’s maritime law enforcement role.
Meanwhile, for the third part of the program, the bill proposes that the Philippines acquire more offshore patrol vessels like BRP Gabriela Silang (OPV-8301) from France as well as more air defense assets. The PCG currently only has three offshore patrol vessels and ten 44-meter multi-role response vessels.
The agency said it would need at least 20 more OPVs to properly monitor and guard the country’s exclusive economic zone, specifically the West Philippine Sea, where Chinese vessels have been encroaching.
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The last part of the modernization program will be focused on creating more PCG training facilities and shipyards. PCG Commodore Jay Tarriela in February said that they are expecting to have over 30,000 personnel by yearend, up from the current estimated 26,000.
RELATED: Coast Guard training facility, base pushed in Occidental Mindoro
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