To empower the Philippine Coast Guard to protect the country’s waters from intrusion and harassment including in the West Philippine Sea, as well as fulfill its other duties as the nation’s primary maritime agency, the PCG needs to be strengthened and its gaps addressed, said Sen. Panfilo Lacson.
“While we all point to the Philippine Coast Guard as the primary maritime agency of the government to strengthen our country’s sensitive frontiers in the West Philippine Sea, we can no longer keep the predicaments of the agency at bay,” Lacson, presidential bet of Partido Reporma, said on Wednesday.
He added there is a need to discuss the apparent distortion in salaries, allowances, benefits, and retirement of the PCG personnel brought about by its separation from the Armed Forces of the Philippines, and the subsequent enactment of Republic Act 9993, the Philippine Coast Guard Law of 2009, as well as the system of ranks and pay rate relevant to the PCG.
Meanwhile, Lacson underscored Partido Reporma’s “strictly no mudslinging” policy as he noted that economic problems are the real enemies of the nation, not political rivals.
Speaking before 1,000 fellow Caviteños in General Trias Sports Park, the party chairman and standard-bearer underscored that poverty, corruption, economic inequality, among others, are their real enemies.
His running mate, Senate President Vicente “Tito” Sotto III, as well as Partido Reporma senatorial bets Dr. Minguita Padilla, retired General Guillermo Eleazar, and guest candidate Raffy Tulfo accompanied Lacson during that event.
The Lacson-Sotto duo wants to elevate the level of political discourse and educate Filipino voters with respect to the deeper and more serious social issues at play ahead of the 2022 national elections.
One issue that needs to be addressed soonest involves the unity of command, especially in times of war, when the Coast Guard will be attached to the Department of National Defense under the proposed measure, Lacson noted.
He said the Coast Guard commandant has a four-star rank, which is equivalent to the Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces of the Philippines.
“Who will take primary responsibility over whom? The reality on the ground is that the Navy has a more upgraded military capability compared to the Coast Guard,” Lacson noted.
He said some options include defrocking the Coast Guard commandant while the country is at war; and to maintain the Coast Guard as the second line of defense with the Navy being the first line of defense.
“And let the secretaries of the Department of Transportation and Department of National Defense deal with each other for lateral coordination,” the senator added.
Another issue is the need for the Coast Guard to conduct regular patrols around Pag-asa Island, which Lacson visited last Nov. 20 and saw for himself the extent of harassment from Chinese vessels.
The Coast Guard currently does not have the capability to conduct regular patrols, with its nearest available vessel in El Nido, Palawan – and will need hours to reach Pag-asa, the only Filipino-inhabited island in the Kalayaan Group of Islands.
It does not expect to regularly patrol the West Philippine Sea until 2022, when it gets new vessels from Japan.
“What if the Chinese Coast Guard vessels attempt to take over Pag-asa, how prepared are we to defend Pag-asa? Pag-asa is the only inhabited island. The others are shoals, classified as not really islands. Pag-asa is a barangay under Kalayaan municipality,” Lacson noted.
“In the dire possibility the Chinese vessels attempt to attack Pag-asa, how would the PCG respond to such a situation? How capable are we to at least put up a decent defense of Pag-asa island?” he added.
Other issues involve the differences in pensions of retired Coast Guard and Navy personnel, as well as the budget needed to enhance the Coast Guard’s capabilities.
Such issues, Lacson noted, “come in the foreground of the growing tension in the disputed territories in the West Philippine Sea amid the continuing Chinese intrusions and harassments on our fishermen, and very recently the water-cannoning incident against two Philippine Navy-commissioned supply vessels in the Ayungin Shoal occupied by our gallant personnel on board the BRP Sierra Madre, perpetrated by the Chinese Coast Guard.”
The Philippine Coast Guard traces its roots from the Bureau of Coast Guard and Transportation created in 1901 during the American Occupation. It was created by virtue of Commonwealth Act No. 1, on Dec. 21, 1935.
In 1967, by virtue of RA 5173, the PCG was created as a major unit under the Philippine Navy of the Armed Forces of the Philippines until March 30, 1998, when then President Fidel Ramos transferred the PCG to the Office of the President, and then to the Department of Transportation and Communications (now the Department of Transportation).