PCG UPDATES
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HEADQUARTERS
PHILIPPINE COAST GUARD
"Indonesia, Philippines and Japan to hold Marine
Pollution Exercise"
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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.
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