The Philippine Coast Guard vessels secure the southern Cebu seas during a security simulation on February 3, 2019 in the seas off Oslob town in southern Cebu. | CDN Digital file photo
OSLOB, Cebu — The Central Visayas district of the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG-7) is considering to have at least seven stations across their area of responsibility by the end of 2019.
Lieutenant Junior Grade Michael John Encina, operations spokesperson of PCG-7, said the new stations would include that in Metro Cebu, Camotes Island, the newly-activated Southern Cebu station in Oslob, Bantayan, and the stations in Northern Cebu, and East and West Bohol that were still on the works.
The Oslob station, which was a product of the stakeholders security summit last February, has been on interim activation since end of the same month and was fully activated at the end of March, Encina said.
Read more: Coast Guard to put up new station in southern Cebu
Encina said they planned to open the seven stations and at least one substation in every coastal municipality to cater to the concerns of the community especially those that were home to beach destinations like in Oslob.
Despite having fully activated only last month, the Oslob station already have three substations in the towns of Santander, Dumanjug and Argao.
Encina said they planned to go on interim activation for the Northern Cebu station by the end of April or first week of May.
The southern Cebu substation of the Coast Guard in Oslob town has been activated last March. | Rosalie O. Abatayo
“Nasa process na yung Northern Cebu. By the end of this month or first week of May, may interim [activation] na kami. Activated na siya sa headquarters (regional) pero wala pa sa higher headquarters natin sa Manila kasi ipa-process pa yun,” Encina explained.
(We are processing the Northern Cebu station, and by the end of this month or first week of May, we are working on the interim activation. The regional headquarters has been activated, but we are still processing the activation in the higher headquarters in Manila.)
“Ang kagandahan kapag station, aside that official yung naglelead is that mas napupush tayo na punan yung gaps sa mga communities, mas nakikita natin yung needs kaysa kung substation lang,” he added.
(The beauty of having a station aside from having an official to lead it is that we can fill the gaps in the communities. We can see what needs to be done if there is a substation there.)/dbs