ILOILO City – A slipway – also known as boat ramp or boat launcher – will be built at the Philippine Coast Guard base in Barrio Obrero, Lapuz district.
The local government will fund the project estimated to cost P1 million, based on a memorandum of understanding the city hall and the Coast Guard entered into on Thursday.
The facility will “[improve] the timeliness of response whenever rescue at sea is needed,” said Commodore Allan Victor T. Dela Vega, commander of the Coast Guard District Western Visayas.
In particular the project seeks to strengthen emergency response in the coastal barangays of Barrio Obrero, Hinactacan and Ingore.
These villages are “vulnerable to accidents, notwithstanding their vulnerability to storm surges during typhoons,” stated the memorandum of understanding.
Twenty-one cases of drowning and 17 incidents of boat capsizing have been recorded in these areas between 2015 and 2017.
Currently Coast Guard rescue boats are launched at the Iloilo Fish Port Complex in Barangay Tanza. Response time thus takes “hours,” said Dela Vega.
“With [the slipway], the deployment of small boats and rescue units will be faster,” said the Coast Guard official.
“[The slipway] is beside the river so it will have access to different areas in Iloilo City, especially when there is flooding,” he added.
The Coast Guard base in Barrio Obrero is just across the Iloilo Ferry Terminal. It can provide a storage area for rescue boats of the city government and other emergency responders.
Currently the Coast Guard has four small boats and four big vessels that can be used for emergency response in Iloilo and Guimaras.
Mayor Jose Espinosa III said that, aside from the slipway, the city government will also provide the Coast Guard a vehicle in a bid to strengthen the agency’s campaign against illegal drugs.
Espinosa cited reports that illegal drugs were being transported to Iloilo through airports and seaports. (With Philippine News Agency/PN)
