MANILA, Philippines – Ten brand new vessels from Japan will be delivered to the Philippine Coast Guard start- ing next year until 2018.
Some of these ships will be assigned to the West Philippine Sea to augment those being used for search and rescue operations.
The first three vessels would start arriving every other month in the second half of next year, five more by 2017 and the remaining two in 2018, according to Coast Guard officer-in-charge Rear Admiral William Melad.
“Our intention is to deploy these multi-role response vessels (MRRV) to the different districts,” he said. “We would assess which district needs an immediate vessel and we will give priority to that district... We would see if there is a need to add ships to the West Philip- pine Sea.”
Melad said the deployment of more ships to the West Philippine Sea was not in response to the territorial dispute with China.
The Coast Guard is also taking into consideration that the vessels to be deployed in the West Philip- pine Sea should be bigger than 40 meters to withstand the big waves and strong winds during typhoons, Melad said.
“These 40-meter vessels would be used for security, law enforcement and for search and rescue,” he said. “These are multi-role vessels so these could perform several functions such as prevent illegal fishing and anti-piracy patrol.”
The acquisition of the 10 vessels from Japan is covered by the Maritime Safety Capability Improvement Project.
It was awarded by the Department of Transportation and Communications to the Japan Marine United Corp.
It is being implemented as an official development assistance project, via a tied loan extended by the Japan International Co- operation Agency (JICA).
The loan facility covers P7.373 billion out of the total project of P8.807 billion.
The balance would be covered by the Philippine counter- part of P1.434 billion.