Cagayan Coast Guard seeks new sea craft vs poachers, smugglers

By Charlie Lagasca

BAYOMBONG, Nueva Vizcaya – The Coast Guard based in Cagayan’s northern Aparri town is in dire need of new and modern sea craft to secure the country’s northernmost coast from illegal fishing and foreign intrusion.

Cagayan Valley’s Regional Peace and Order Council headed by Quirino Gov. Junie Cua appealed to the national government, particularly the Department of Transportation and Communications, to provide them more sophisticated patrol boats and other equipment.

“The appeal must be for vessels which are more efficient in coastal operations. This will enable (our Coast Guard) to sail in the ocean for more effective maritime protection,” Cagayan Valley police director Chief Supt. Francisco Villaroman said.

Villaroman said they also need additional gadgets such as rubbers boats, life jackets, life rings and flashlights not only for safeguarding the northern coast’s marine resources but for mercy missions during calamities or typhoons.

Besides poaching, illegal fishing and foreign intrusion, the northern coast, which is part of the now West Philippine Sea, is also being guarded against being used as a transshipment point of illegal drugs as well as smuggling of ores and vehicles.

Aparri’s Coast Guard, which is under the La Union-based Coast Guard district headquarters, covers the expanse of Cagayan and Isabela coastlines and the Batanes group of islands, including the Babuyan Channels, all lying along the South China Sea.

“We really have very limited number of sea vessels that we cannot permanently assign Coast Guard ships to certain areas of the country. What we are doing is we temporarily station one ship after another depending on the need of the area,” Captain George Ursabia, commander of the Coast Guard’s Northern Luzon district said.

The plight of the Coast Guard here was raised in a recent joint meeting of the RPOC and the Regional Development Council, which Cua also chairs.