ILOILO City – The Philippine Coast Guard was assessing the competency of lifeguards in resorts with swimming pools and beach resorts in Western Visayas.
The ongoing “audit” was aimed at ensuring the lifeguards were “qualified and competent, and not just warm bodies guarding the beaches and pools,” said Commodore Allan Victor T. dela Vega, commander of the Coast Guard District Western Visayas.
About 50 percent of the target establishments have been covered by the audit so far.
The Coast Guard gave particular attention to Boracay Island, which reopened on Oct. 26.
“We have issued a memorandum circular that there should be lifeguards in every resort that has pools and in coastal beach resorts,” said dela Vega.
“[We must] ensure that private resorts and the municipal government – for a public beach area – should have lifeguards,” he added.
The Coast Guard has audited 211 lifeguards and trained them “for more improved competence in terms of saving life at sea and basic life support.”
Some owners of pools and beach resorts had lifeguards who were uncertified but were willing to have their lifeguards assessed and trained by the Coast Guard, said dela Vega.
The assessment costs nothing more than the P300 fee for a certification from the Coast Guard, he added.
During the assessment Coast Guard personnel check the lifeguards’ skills and competency and their equipment. “With the right apparatus, you can perform your job well,” dela Vega said.
Dela Vega opined that pools were not supposed to operate without a lifeguard on duty.
But he noted that the Coast Guard cannot sanction noncompliant establishments.
All the agency could do to such establishments is to hang banners warning the public that no competent lifeguard is present there.
“But this is not the objective,” dela Vega clarified. “We are pressuring them (resort management) to comply.” (With Philippine News Agency/PN)
