PCG: A communications and surveillance exercise between the Philippine Coast Guard, Japan Coast Guard and Regional Cooperation Agreement on Combating Piracy and Armed Robbery against Ships in Asia-Information Sharing Center (ReCAAP-ISC) was conducted simulating a vessel piracy attack yesterday, May 13.

Vice Commandant for Operations, Vice Admiral Shuichi Iwanami; Mr Koji Tsuchiya; Commander Shigeru Yoshida, JICA expert in PCG; Mr Masafumi Kuroki, Executive Director of ReCAAP together with Commodore Leopoldo V Laroya PCG, Commander of Maritime Security and Law Enforcement; Captain Tito Alvin Andal PCG, Deputy Chief of Coast Guard Staff for Logistics were onboard JCG’s airborne plane, Falcon 900 (JA 8571) to serve as observers.

Falcon 900 together with PCG’s deployed patrol vessels, BRP Romblon (SARV-3503) and BRP Malapascua (MRRV 4403) and PCG manned-Monitoring, Control and Surveillance (MCS) 3007 of the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) were deployed for the said simulation of a cargo vessel under piracy attack between Jolo Island and Tawi-Tawi upon receipt of piracy incident from ReCAAP-ISC.

“The exercise helped us build good working relationship and interoperability between the PCG, JCG and ReCAAP which is based in Singapore. We have had lots of piracy exercises with the Japan Coast Guard. However, it is mostly in the conduct of anti-piracy exercise.”, COMMO LAROYA PCG said during his interview.

“We utilize a plane from the JCG for the conduct of communications exercise in order to present the capability to respond and share information quickly about piracy”, he added.