3 0800H July 2009

The Philippine Coast Guard together with Marine Environment Experts from Japan Coast Guard and Directorate General of the Sea Communications of Indonesia are gearing up to conduct a Marine Oil Spill Prevention and Containment in Balikpapan, Indonesia on July 14 – 16, 2009.

Dubbed as (Marine Pollution Exercise) MARPOLEX Balikpapan 2009, the three countries will be sending contingent, which include vessels, air assets and marine environmental protection personnel to participate in the week long exercise in combating oil pollution. PCG organized a Task Group (TG 90.1) composed of two vessels, BRP Pampanga (SARV-003) under the Command of CDR Rolando Lizor N Punzalan Jr PCG and M/T Habagat (TB 271) under the Command of CAPT Romeo R Rivero PCG, as the PCG Contingent to the joint Republic of Indonesia - Republic of the Philippines – Japan MARPOLEX BALIKPAPAN 09. The PCG Contingent will be composed of some 100 Coast Guard officers and enlisted personnel.

PCG Commandant ADMIRAL WILFREDO D TAMAYO PCG said that the exercise will test and evaluate the level of interoperability of the participating countries in case of a major transboundary oil spill, and will also update current procedures of the oil spill recovery and response capability of the participating countries. Admiral Tamayo further said that the event will also aim to provide a firm basis for the effective working relationship among the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG), Directorate General of the Sea Communications of Indonesia (DGSI), and the Japan Coast Guard (JCG).

The exercise is conducted every two years between the PCG and Indonesia with the PCG and DGSI alternately hosting the exercise. This activity dubbed as MARPOLEX BALIKPAPAN 2009 is the 14th bilateral exercise between the two countries. The last exercise code named MARPOLEX Guimaras 2007 was held in the waters of Guimaras, Iloilo, Philippines. The organization of the Oil Spill and Response Cooperation Convention paved for the Japan Maritime Safety Agency (JMSA) now the Japan Coast Guard (JCG) to join the MARPOLEX which was held in the Philippines in 1985. The integration of JCG has greatly enhanced the exercise and has transformed this into a multi-lateral regional cooperation.

The MARPOL Exercise which in accordance with the provisions of the Oil Pollution Prevention Response and Cooperation (OPPRC) of 1990 is a tiered Response Procedure to enhance cooperation and capability of the two countries to respond to oil spill incidents particularly along common navigable waters where tankers carrying heavy volume oil pass through.