US pours $20M into PH coast watch center

MANILA, Philippines–Amid the rising tensions in the South China Sea, the United States has poured $20 million (P880 million) into the Philippines’ National Coast Watch Center to enhance the country’s capability to secure and manage its maritime domain, the US Embassy in Manila said.

“The US has provided $20 million to date for the center that provides critical information fusion and 24-hour operations to support enhanced awareness of the Philippines’ maritime domain. Future incremental improvements are planned to fully realize the potential of the center,” the embassy said in a statement on Thursday.

US Ambassador Philip S. Goldberg led the inauguration of the National Coast Watch Center on Tuesday, which Goldberg said underscored “the US commitment to helping the Philippines manage and secure its maritime domain.”

US defense officials

Goldberg was joined by Jay Finch, the US deputy defense secretary for combating weapons of mass destruction, and Kenneth Myers, the director of the US defense department’s Defense Threat Reduction Agency, as well as Philippine officials at the Coast Guard headquarters in Manila where the center is to be based.

The National Coast Watch Center is a multiyear partnership funded by Defense Threat Reduction Agency as part of a maritime security project under the Weapons for Mass Destruction Proliferation Prevention Program.

The project, when completed, will tie together more than a dozen stations and sensors, as well as ships of the Coast Guard, to provide a more comprehensive picture of ships and vessels operating in or near Philippine waters.

Maritime domain

“Maritime domain awareness is crucial for the Philippines as it increases its abilities to thwart smuggling, illegal fishing, other criminal activities as well as improving defense capacity,” the US Embassy said.

The Philippines has expressed alarm over the massive reclamation projects being undertaken by China in disputed territories in the South China Sea amid the arbitration case it has filed with the United Nations arbitration tribunal in The Hague.

The Philippines filed the case to clarify its maritime entitlements under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (Unclos) and to challenge China’s sweeping ownership claim over nearly the entire South China Sea.

Last month, Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario announced the Philippines’ plan to ask for more substantive support from its closest ally in the Pacific, the US, in resolving the tension in the South China Sea as a result of China’s reclamation activities.