MANILA, Philippines – The Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) on Friday warned that the lack of funding for its stations in Palawan and Kalayaan Island Group (KIG) would have a “very significant impact in its activities over the West Philippine Sea (WPS).
In light of this, PCG Commandant Admiral Ronnie Gil Gavan appealed to the Senate finance committee to place funding into its stations.
“There are still eight stations in need of funding, P25 million each po yun, kasama yung Palawan area and KIG. Obviously, it will have a very significant impact on our activities in the West Philippine Sea,” Gavan said.
(There are still eight stations in need of funding; that’s P25 million each, including the Palawan area and KIG. Obviously it will have a very significant impact in our activities in the West Philippine Sea.)
READ: PCG: China Coast Guard ship rams BFAR vessel off Palawan
But apart from the lack of funding for coast guard stations, the agency’s budget for air and floating acquisition and maintenance was also cut by around P3.3 billion.
According to Gavan, this too, would make it difficult for the PCG to patrol critical areas in the WPS.
“It will significantly compromise our operational ability. We are already operating at the maximum. The repair and maintenance requirements of our ships is delikado na po baka hindi na namin masustain so we’re really appealing to the Senate to consider our budget requests,” Gavan told the panel.
(It will significantly compromise our operational ability. We are already operating at the maximum. The repair and maintenance requirements of our ships are already critical, we may not be able to sustain it, so we’re really appealing to the Senate to consider our budget requests)
He cautioned: “We have to remember that we only have so much ships, and operating at almost 80-90 percent operational tempo. So the time between overhaul is very very short. It’s just a matter of time that we will run out of ships and we want to prevent that.”
Air assets are also another cause for concern, Gavan pointed out.
“We only have one helicopter flying now. The other one needs major repairs,” he shared.
Gavan then bared that the PCG hoped to undertake a “lease-to-own” approach in the acquisition of helicopters.
KIG and the waters off Palawan have long been subjected to maritime disputes as China, which has been building an island in the Zamora Reef, claimed historical sovereignty over the KIG and parts of the WPS.
Most recently, China launched flares at a Filipino aircraft conducting a maritime domain awareness flight while unarmed over the KIG. /mr
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