Home 
MANILA, Philippines -- President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has signed a new law giving the Philippine Coast Guard increased law enforcement powers, including the authority to detain and prevent from sailing substandard passenger and cargo vessels plying the country?s waters.
Known as the ?Philippine Coast Guard Act of 2009? or Republic Act 9993, the new law aims to further enhance maritime safety and prevent sea tragedies.
Investigations into some of the worst disasters in maritime history that occurred in Philippine waters showed there was need to pinpoint clearer responsibility for the enforcement of maritime safety regulations.
Eight years in the legislative mill, the new law strengthens the arm of the Coast Guard to issue and enforce rules and regulations covering the ?promotion of safety of life and property at sea on all maritime-related activities,? as well as promote marine environmental protection.
Transportation Secretary Leandro Mendoza called the Philippine Coast Guard Act of 2009 a measure that ?has long been awaited by the maritime industry and the riding public.?
Admiral Wilfredo Tamayo, Coast Guard commandant, said the agency?s functions would no longer be limited to the mere inspection of merchant ships.
In a statement, Tamayo said the new law ?vests the Coast Guard with the authority to strictly enforce regulations on maritime safety standards within Philippine territorial waters.?
This includes the power to detain and stop from sailing all substandard vessels,? Tamayo said.
The law formalized the Coast Guard?s status as an agency attached to the Department of Transportation and Communications (DoTC), but with the provision that it would be placed under the Department of National Defense ?in times of war? with the approval of Congress.
Presidential Decree No. 60, issued in 1974 by then President Ferdinand E. Marcos, gave the Coast Guard the additional task of ensuring environmental protection in the country?s territorial waters.
In 1998, then President Fidel V. Ramos issued Executive Order No. 475 transferring the agency to the Office of the President.
Ramos later issued EO No. 477 transferring the Coast Guard to the DOTC.According to Tamayo, the new law ?empowers the Coast Guard to address both traditional and nontraditional challenges, including but not limited to the effects of climate change, natural disasters and other activities that subscribe to the humanitarian case of saving lives, whether during sea disasters, incidents of piracy, terrorism and other unforeseen circumstances that subject lives and properties to unnecessary risks or danger.?
The Coast Guard will be called upon to conduct full maritime search-and-rescue operations.
Tamayo said the Philippine Coast Guard Act of 2009 was consistent with contemporary developments in other parts of the world.
In pushing for the enactment of the measure, Mendoza emphasized it was ?essential for [the agency] to develop into a well-manned, well-organized and well-equipped maritime safety, marine environmental protection and law enforcement organization.?
