Marcos: Check ships used in Manila Bay reclamation
President Marcos has directed the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) to inspect vessels being used in Manila Bay reclamation projects, particularly their registrations and tracking systems.
“The President orders the PCG to board all the dredgers operating in Manila Bay as part of the reclamation project and inspect their vessel registration and AIS (Automatic Identification System) transmission,” Palace press officer Claire Castro said, quoting a PCG statement.
The order was in response to an article published by maritime security analyst Ray Powell about a Chinese-made dredging ship that had allegedly used different identities while traveling between Manila Bay and a dredging site in Zambales province for more than two years.
Powell said the ship, Kang Ling 539, had worked under six different country flags—including the Philippines, Sierra Leone, China, São Tomé and Príncipe, and Panama—while doing dredging work.
Last weekend, the ship stopped showing its Philippine identity while operating for four hours at the mouth of the Santo Tomas River in Zambales.
After returning to Manila Bay, it started using the Philippine identity again, Powell said in the article.
