U.S. Defense turns over modern 'coast watch’ building to Palawan

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By Celeste Anna Formoso (PNA)

PUERTO PRINCESA CITY, Palawan -- A state-of-the-art coast watch building facility intended to have nautical electronic eyes over the Philippines’ maritime territory were turned over by the United States Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) to Palawan on Tuesday.

The building facility called the “National Coast Watch Station Palawan,” is part of the DTRA’s USD50-million support package for inter-agency maritime surveillance to address current and future maritime safety, security, and environmental protection challenges in the province.

“A couple of years ago, we completed the National Coast Watch Center (NCWC), which is in Manila, this center and this building and another in Cebu – those three facilities, together with the training facility (in Sta. Lourdes in Puerto Princesa) for the maritime police – have been about USD50 million in the Philippines,” said Dr. Robert Pope, director of DTRA's cooperative threat reduction program. The capabilities of the building facility include modern radio communications, radar, automatic identification system, day and night surveillance cameras, operational fixture system to relay data to the National Coast Watch System (NCWS) in Manila, and training means to support the personnel who will handle its daily operations.

“(This is for) the purpose of our government having maritime electronic eyes in our maritime domain. It aims to provide us what we call in maritime domain awareness in all aspects, not just security, but economic as well,” said Rear Adm. Joel Garcia, director of the NCWC.

He said the coast watch station would be instrumental for Palawan and the country to have a maritime domain awareness tool to understand what is happening around maritime areas.

“We are basically talking here about the totality of our maritime domain pertaining to protecting our pristine and precious maritime environment,” Garcia said.

In talking about the facility, it was designed to be an operation center of the members from all the agencies of the NCWS that was established in 2011, Pope said.

“Together with the NCWS, this facility and the professionals operating it will form a system that will make the Philippines and the world safer from illegitimate commerce and navigation,” he stated.

It’s a robust facility that would match the country’s target of eliminating theft and smuggling, threats of weapons of mass destruction, prevent trafficking, and the likes, in its territorial waters, said Pope.

Meanwhile, CGDP commander Commodore Joselito dela Cruz and Vice Governor Dennis Socrates both said the donated facility matched the provincial government’s peace and security objectives within its borders.

“To achieve the goal of bringing Palawan from out of the forest and into the 21st century, we need all the help we can get from all quarters that is why we are especially grateful to the government of the United States – the DTRA – for having selected Palawan as the site of this national coast watch station,” he said.

“It is very timely as it coincides with the ignition point of a rapidly growing province, where safety and security, and protection of the people and the environment have become a primordial concern,” said Socrates.

Dela Cruz, who will be in charge of the building facility, said he was thankful to accept the challenge of leading the inter-agency professionals who would handle its operations towards a maritime safety and security.

He said they would be working closely with the local government units, the Western Command, and other law enforcement units in the province to ensure maritime safety and security.