Second cutter from US due within 2nd quarter

MANILA, Philippines—Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin told reporters Tuesday that a second high-endurance cutter from the United States Coast Guard is expected to arrive in the country within the next couple of months, if not sooner.

Earlier reports said the Philippine Navy was to acquire the cutter Dallas, which was decommissioned recently from the US Coast Guard, in order to be transferred to the Philippine Navy.

It is a sister ship of what is now the BRP Gregorio Del Pilar, a former US Coast Guard cutter which was acquired in June last year but arrived in the country in September. It is now the biggest warship in the Philippine Navy fleet.

The second US Coast Guard cutter was originally expected to arrive early this year.

“We will get it within the year,” said Gazmin, adding he has been assured by US officials “that we will be able to get it.”

Gazmin and Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario will be in the US on April 30 for talks with their counterparts, US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on defense and economic issues, including regional issues.

“Maybe it will be nice if I can ride (on the new ship) on my return home,” Gazmin said at a forum with the Defense Press Corps on Tuesday.

The Philippine-US talks come as the Philippine and Chinese vessels are locked in a stand-off  in the Panatag Shoal (international name: Scarborough Shoal), which began on April 8. Both the Philippine and China claim the shoal as part of their territories.

Chinese maritime surveillance ships prevented Philippine maritime authorities from arresting Chinese poachers who were found to have illegally taken a huge quantity of endangered giant clams, live sharks and corals from the area.

It was the BRP Gregorio Del Pilar which intercepted  eight Chinese fishing boats, but the Navy ship was stopped from arresting the poachers by the arrival of two Chinese maritime surveillance vessels.

Panatag Shoal is 124 nautical miles from the nearest basepoint in Zambales province and therefore well within the Philippines’ 200-nautical-mile exclusive economic zone, but the Chinese claim it is theirs by historical right.

“I’m sure this will be one of the subject matter,” Gazmin said when asked if the stand-off will be taken up in the talks with their US counterparts.

But he downplayed the possibility of outright US assistance on the matter.

“Let’s be practical. From their point of view if it’s in their interest, they will act in order to assist us. But if it is not in their interest, I’m sure they will not act. So what we will do is (focus on our) capability upgrade. They will offer equipment that would be able to address these areas,” Gazmin said.

The Philippines and China and four other nations are locked in a territorial dispute over the Spratly group of islands in the West Philippine Sea (or South China Sea).

Meanwhile, Gazmin said the Department of National Defense was almost through preparing half of the 138 contracts the department wants to enter into during the Aquino administration to acquire major hardware and equipment for the military.

The defense department expects to finish all 138 contracts by July this year so they can be submitted to President Aquino for approval, and then to Congress for budget appropriation.

The DND has said the 138 military contracts worth P70 billion includes the acquisition of fighter jets, warships and modern equipment to boost depleted military assets especially of the Philippine Air Force and the Philippine Navy.

The contracts will not be entered into at the same time but over a period of time until 2016.