PCG receives drones from Germany

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) has received support from Germany, which donated drones, various supplies and manuals.

Rear Adm.  Joeven Fabul, head of the PCG’s Coast Guard Weapons, Communications, Electronics and Information Systems Command, received three customized unmmanned aerial systems or drones presented by German Ambassador Andreas Michael Pfaffernoschke during an event at the PCG headquarters in Manila last Dec. 16.

The drones were among the products of the partnership between the PCG and Germany’s development agency Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) in the  Philippines and the Pacific Islands, the PCG noted.

The collaboration aimed to procure drones and train PCG personnel in operating them, as well as formulate a manual for compliant data handling and a digital evidence curriculum for maritime law enforcement.

PCG Capt. Eric Ferrancullo, deputy chief of the Coast Guard Staff for Strategic Studies and Modernization, thanked the German government for leading the project.

Ferrancullo said it was “not only a vital step toward enhancing the operational capacity of the PCG, but also reflected a commitment to upholding a rules-based international order in the Indo-Pacific region.”

Pfaffernoschke has declared in several instances Germany’s support for the Philippines’ assertion of its sovereign rights in the West Philippine Sea.