Coast Guard eyeing 1,000 additional men

NUEVA VIZCAYA, Philippines – The Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) is recruiting 1,000 new Coast Guard personnel as part of the government’s effort to beef up security along the country’s vast coastline. 

DOTC spokesman Thompson Lantion said the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) has at present only 4,000 men, whose main task is to man, preserve and protect the country’s long coastlines from intruders, including smugglers and illegal fishers.

The PCG is under the DOTC’s Maritime Affairs, which Lantion, who hails from this province, would formally head today as an undersecretary. 

The limited number or absence of PCG personnel in many ports to enforce navigational rules came to the fore amid the series of sea mishaps last year.