Our Coast Guard

The Coast guard was transferred to the DOTC from the Philippine navy.
RA 9295 or the domestic act promoted local ship building and putting a limit on the age of the recently used vessels.

Still from Dona Paz to the Princess of the stars happened and they are among the worst maritime disasters in the country happens.
We have many agencies with overlapping roles with their budgets spread to thin.
We have the coast guard to keep ships afloat a Marina for integrate,develop,promote andregulation of the maritime industry, a maritime group for our PNP , the department of agriculture has its own unit to monitor our seas, so many alphabet soups.

What could be the solution?
During the princess of the stars the usual fingerpointing happened;The Coast guard blaming PAGASA to PAGASA blaming Sulpicio.
Coast guard has its own environmental program that should have addressed the Guimaras oil spill
The coast guard has its security program that could have prevented those kidnappings and foreign ers fishing on our seas.
Most important of them all is the coastguard has its safety program, that could have prevented those overloadings and unfit to travel vessels and those interisland smuggling and illegal drug trades as well.

The cost guard cannot do it alone,when it was removed from the AFP, its budget got reduced tremendously .
Interagency cooperation is a solution.


What is interagency cooperation an example is the AFP lending its soldiers to the PDEA through an MOA.
How can interagency help solve our maritime woes?
Interagency cooperation is the answer.
Let the PPA take care of the ports,but before the ships reach our ports our coast guard should be aware of the passenger manifests, the BOC should be aware of their cargo manifests,of course Marina does what it does.

This is not getting on each and everyone’s turf, as the Sesame Street programs tell us, what’s it called again? That’s called COOPERATION.

A program was launched in the south a few years back and it is called coast watch south, the program is intended to be replicated in the North,the east and the west.

Below is a proposal for interagency coopeartion among the lead and supporting agencies. The second table includes the proposals of our neighbors.
Kindly click on the tables below for better viewing.

AFP Modernization After A Decade

Our AFP modernization after thrirteen years.

From a proposed 331 billion yearly for 15 years reduced by congress to 5 billion yearly until further notice.
That 5 billion is not enough according to Teodoro,it is just not enough.
Recto says: 5 B yearly modernization fund, not enough to stop Air Force nosedive.

A 2007 news paper reports says :AFP modernization drive sputters.

Our nation is the only remaining communist insurgency in Asia aside from Nepal, notwithstanding the seeming shift from communism by Russsia and China.
We are an archipelago with one of the most longest coast lines in the world.
We have the most antiquated weapons,ships and aircraft and ill equipped soldiers in the region .

So Republic Act NR 7898, otherwise known as the AFP Modernization Act, which was signed into law by the President on 23 February 1995.

I can surmise that the Asian crisis and the crises that follow years after that is the main culprit for its reduction from its intended 22 billion a year(+-)to 5 billion a year, but another question is where is the proceeds from the sale of Ft. Boni that would be 8 billion , if I am not mistaken.

Some might say why spend when we can rely on military aid , why spend when we are not at war.Aren't we?

Some might even say that the insurgencies and separatists' wars are just fabricated so that the AFP can have a piece of the pie;some even say that the AFP and the PNP gets preferential treatment as far as the Arroyo’s “Strong republic” budget is concerned.

What they are missing is that most of the AFP's budget goes to the active and retired personneland a little is left for operations,including modernization.

According to Wikipedia the AFP has 113,500 active personnel, and as of 2005 there were 93,601 AFP retirees.

For the fiscal year 2002;
We can see that there are 9,098,476,000 appropriated for the AFP pension and gratuity Fund and a total of 50,355,411,000 for active and retired AFP personnel.
The following fiscal year
2003: Only 32,268,756,000 was paid the AFP personnel.
The AFP retirement and gratuity fund may have been funded by the savings of the AFP for 2002.

According to the AFPGMC or the AFP pension and gratuity management center,the retiree’s funds came from th is sem.

Apparently, most of it is still appropriated and the pensioners even have
arrears.
The latest news on AFP pensioner’s arrears.

In WAR a nation must be Willing Able and Ready. we may be willing, but are we able and ready?
Unless there is a way to have a lean and mean military and have a social security system fund for the pensioners, about 60 billion will be disbursed for the AFP 's active and retired personnel yearly and we will never have enough money for the operations of the military including its modernization.

As to band aid and long term solutions here are s proposal from congress:
House OKs bill freeing AFP-modernization from taxes.
Congressman Ruffy Biazon on Defense Budgeting.

Nota Bene

I have deleted articles,discussion and position papers written by my father.
I apologize for the links I posted in some comment threads leading to what are now dead links.
I also apologize to the reader/s who may have already read some of them.

Lastly, I have also deleted some of own entries.