Duterte fan pages on Facebook was all praises for President Rodrigo Duterte for the arrival of three vessels from Japan and four from France. They thanked Duterte and said that the whole world loves Duterte despite the criticisms he got. The President even received a “good job” from his fan pages.
The Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) is set to receive three vessels from Japan and four from France, according to the website du30newsinfo.com that the fan page shared. The website claimed that this information was revealed by Coast Guard spokesperson Commander Armand Balilo in a report by Rappler.com. Du30newsinfo.com added that the PCG will be hiring 900 uniformed personnel by 2016 to be added to the 8,800 personnel the PCG had in the previous year. The article further revealed that the Philippines will be receiving 10 44-meter Multi-Role Response Vessels (MRRV) from Japan; and 1 82-meter Offshore Patrol Vessel (OPV) and 4 24-meter fast patrol boats (FPB) from France. If this were true, then the Philippines is set to receive an estimate of 15 new vessels for the PCG in 2016.
Du30newsinfo.com cited Update.ph as their source for the news but upon clicking the link, we noticed that the article published by du30newsinfo.com was actually plagiarized from the said “source”. Since this does not prove that the news is true, we clicked the link provided by both sites as their original source, which was a report by Rappler.com.
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In the news article “Philippine Coast Guard to hire new personnel in 2016” published by Rappler.com on December 28, 2015, it was confirmed that the Philippine Coast Guard is indeed planning to hire 900 uniformed personnel in 2016. However, only 3 vessels from Japan and 4 vessels from the Philippines are set to arrive this year while the other vessels will not be delivered until next year. This improvement in the PCG is rooted from former President Benigno Aquino III’s goal to modernize the PCG by 2017 also called the Maritime Safety Capability Improvement Project.
As of August 2016, the multi-role response vessel (MRRV) turned over by Japan to the PCG has already arrived in the country, according to an ABS-CBN report. This brand-new ship named BRP Tubbataha is equipped with night vision capability, radio direction finders, Morse code equipment, and other advanced features. Japan is yet to deliver 10 more 44-meter coast guard ships but the date of their arrival to the Philippines is still undetermined. On the other hand, there is still no news about the vessels that are set to arrive from France as of this date.
Unlike what the Duterte fan pages claimed, the Philippine Coast Guard was set to welcome the vessels ordered during Aquino’s administration. So, for this particular news, shouldn’t the credit go to Aquino, not Duterte?
Sources: (rappler.com, news.abs-cbn.com)
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