The United States on Monday turned over a P250-million training facility to the Philippine Coast Guard that would improve its capability to protect the country’s waters.
Located in Balagtas, Bulacan, the Specialized Education and Technical Building will help train Coast Guard personnel on navigation, law enforcement, and maintenance of ships, said PCG Vice Admiral Ronnie Gil Gavan.
“They will have classroom instructions and a simulator, a laboratory for the engine room. Everything is here except for the physical water (of the sea),” he said.
US Ambassador MaryKay Carlson said the United States stands with the PCG in defending Philippine sovereign rights and in upholding a rules-based international order in her turnover speech.
The US Coast Guard will be actively involved in training programs and projects in the facility that took six years to complete due to pandemic delays, Carlson said.
“Unfortunately, we’ve seen 6 years of buildup in the West Philippine Sea as well,” she said.
“It’s really important that we have a long-term commitment to the Coast Guard, to the people of the Philippines because we are truly steadfast friends, we are partners in prosperity and we are ironclad allies and that’s a mutual defense treaty that we have.”
Beijing claims almost the entire South China Sea, including parts of the West Philippine Sea, through which trillions of dollars in trade passes annually.
China has ignored an international court ruling that its assertion has no legal basis and has deployed hundreds of vessels to patrol the sea and swarm reefs.