Photo Release

Lacson leads public hearing on PCG Reform Bill: Senate Committee on Public Services vice chairperson Sen. Panfilo “Ping” Lacson presides over Tuesday, December 7, 2021, a hybrid public hearing on Senate Bill No. (SBN) 2322, which seeks to revise the Philippines Coast Guard (PCG) law to enable the institution to better accomplish its mandate and to best serve the Filipino people. Lacson said he personally asked Sen. Grace Poe, chairperson of the committee, to allow him to hear the proposed measure because of the “pressing gaps” in the operational, administrative and organizational exigencies of the PCG. The gaps, Lacson noted, came forward at the foreground of the ongoing tension in the disputed territories at the West Philippines Sea (WPS) amid the continuing Chinese intrusions and harassment of fishermen. “While we all point to the Philippine Coast Guard as the primary maritime agency of the government to strengthen our country’s sensitive frontiers in the WPS we can no longer keep the predicaments of the agencies at bay,” Lacson said. The committee also tackled SBN 2265 or the Philippine Coast Guard Auxiliary Act and SBN 1112 or the Philippine Coast Guard Academy Act. (Joseph Vidal/Senate PRIB)