The Philippines yesterday said its coast guard would acquire 40 fast patrol craft from France, with plans to deploy some of them in disputed areas of the South China Sea.
The deal is the “largest so far single purchase” in Manila’s ongoing effort to modernize its coast guard, with deliveries set to start in four years, Philippine Coast Guard Commandant Admiral Ronnie Gil Gavan told a news conference.
He declined to provide specifications for the vessels, which Manila said would cost 25.8 billion pesos (US$440 million), to be funded by development aid from the French government.
Photo: AFP
He said some of the vessels would be deployed in the South China Sea, where Filipino maritime forces have figured in violent confrontations this year with the China Coast Guard — part of a festering territorial dispute over waters and land features.
China claims most of the sea including waters close to the shores of the Philippines and several other neighbors, ignoring an international tribunal ruling that its claims are without legal basis.
“It is a game changer for us,” Gavan said, describing the vessels as “fast enough to reach the edges of our exclusive economic zone” for law enforcement and other missions.
“This will form part of the force mix that we need to address the threats in the area,” he added.
Under the deal, 20 of the 40 vessels would be built in the Philippines through a technology transfer that Gavan said would provide a boost to Manila’s shipbuilding industry.
“The new [fast patrol craft] will help deter smuggling and illegal activities while ensuring the enforcement of maritime sovereignty in critical marine areas,” Philippine Secretary of the National Economic and Development Authority Arsenio Balisacan said in a statement.
The Philippine Coast Guard has a small fleet of modern vessels, including two 97m patrol ships and ten 44m patrol ships, all built by Japan.
The Japanese government is financing the construction of five additional 97m patrol vessels worth ¥64.4 million (US$418 million) that would be delivered in 2027.
NO EXCUSES: Marcos said his administration was acting on voters’ demands, but an academic said the move was emotionally motivated after a poor midterm showing Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr yesterday sought the resignation of all his Cabinet secretaries, in a move seen as an attempt to reset the political agenda and assert his authority over the second half of his single six-year term. The order came after the president’s allies failed to win a majority of Senate seats contested in the 12 polls on Monday last week, leaving Marcos facing a divided political and legislative landscape that could thwart his attempts to have an ally succeed him in 2028. “He’s talking to the people, trying to salvage whatever political capital he has left. I think it’s
Polish presidential candidates offered different visions of Poland and its relations with Ukraine in a televised debate ahead of next week’s run-off, which remains on a knife-edge. During a head-to-head debate lasting two hours, centrist Warsaw Mayor Rafal Trzaskowski, from Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s governing pro-European coalition, faced the Eurosceptic historian Karol Nawrocki, backed by the right-wing populist Law and Justice party (PiS). The two candidates, who qualified for the second round after coming in the top two places in the first vote on Sunday last week, clashed over Poland’s relations with Ukraine, EU policy and the track records of their
UNSCHEDULED VISIT: ‘It’s a very bulky new neighbor, but it will soon go away,’ said Johan Helberg of the 135m container ship that run aground near his house A man in Norway awoke early on Thursday to discover a huge container ship had run aground a stone’s throw from his fjord-side house — and he had slept through the commotion. For an as-yet unknown reason, the 135m NCL Salten sailed up onto shore just meters from Johan Helberg’s house in a fjord near Trondheim in central Norway. Helberg only discovered the unexpected visitor when a panicked neighbor who had rung his doorbell repeatedly to no avail gave up and called him on the phone. “The doorbell rang at a time of day when I don’t like to open,” Helberg told television
A team of doctors and vets in Pakistan has developed a novel treatment for a pair of elephants with tuberculosis (TB) that involves feeding them at least 400 pills a day. The jumbo effort at the Karachi Safari Park involves administering the tablets — the same as those used to treat TB in humans — hidden inside food ranging from apples and bananas, to Pakistani sweets. The amount of medication is adjusted to account for the weight of the 4,000kg elephants. However, it has taken Madhubala and Malika several weeks to settle into the treatment after spitting out the first few doses they