RP Still Uses Age-Old Maritime Communication Equipment

by Nomadicasian for Rus in Urbe    June 27, 2008

In spite of alacrity and dedication to their duties, the Maritime Agency or the Philippine Coast Guard in particular, is not always ready to give immediate action to any sea going vessels having trouble while sailing in the country’s territorial waters.

This after local media found out that the agency is still using the age-old two-way radio; 1VHF and 1 SSB or Single Side Band radios, which is no longer suitable to the current standard of GMDSS being used by countries from around the world.

The Global Maritime Distress and Safety System or GMDSS is the most accurate and reliable communication equipment available today. In 1998, the Philippines acquired 19 units of GMDSS at a cost of 1 billion pesos. But unluckily the procurement process hit a snafu because of unseen hands that grabbed dirty money out of it. The unused equipment was left to rust.

Made worse by the lack of GMDSS was that some of the vessels like the ill-fated M/V Princess of the Stars do not have weather satellite of their own. No wonder that the frequency of sea disasters in the Philippines is high. Most of the time, the ship owners/ management & crews rely on weather forecast issued by local weather bureau.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

Rate It:

• 1
• 2
• 3
• 4
• 5