MANILA, Philippines — The Senate should investigate what happened to the stalled plan to locally-build a 60-meter Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) vessel, which already had an allocated budget, but the fund was later sent back to treasury due to “bureaucratic incompetence.”
Sen. Juan Miguel Zubiri made this appeal to his fellow senators.
Zubiri, in his privilege speech on Tuesday, said he spearheaded a budgetary allocation of P2.5 billion for the project in the 2024 budget when he was the Senate president.
“I hope that we can find the answers when the appropriate committee investigates this issue,” he said.
“We fought for the PCG to receive this budget, and yet, this opportunity has been wasted,” he lamented.
Zubiri remembered that an Australian shipping company Austal Limited had signified to bid for this endeavor, which the senator believed would be a “win-win” situation.
He explained that since, aside from having a brand new PCG ship, it would be built in the firm’s shipbuilding facility in Cebu’s coastal town Balamban, employing 3,000 Filipinos for this project alone.
Since then, several meetings had “ensued back and forth” between PCG officials, the Austal executives and the Australian ambassador, with the project already having President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s approval.
“That was until last month, when I received a letter from Admiral Ronnie Gavan, Commandant of the PCG. In his letter, he narrated the circumstances regarding the 2.5 billion budget for the procurement of PCG vessel,” Zubiri told his colleagues.
Citing Gavan, Zubiri said mandatory approvals like Authority to Purchase Motor Vehicle and Special Allotment Release Order (Saro) were already secured on Sept. 29 and Oct. 13 last year.
In December, an initial pre-bid conference was held, attended by three local shipbuilding companies, followed by a second pre-bid conference with four prospective suppliers in attendance, before the bid was opened.
Despite all this, Zubiri said he learned that the allocation “is no longer available to the PCG” and it has since been reverted to the national treasury.
The senator said PCG officials went to his office on Tuesday morning but he said a “closed door meeting” is not enough.
“Maybe, let’s have a hearing. There you’ll mention what happened,” Zubiri said of PCG officials.
“Who’s at fault? Is it the DBM (Department of Budget and Management) that was so slow in releasing the Saro?” he asked. “But they released it anyway.”
“Is it the PCG procurement office? Was it the DOTr (Department of Transportation)? Was somebody telling you to do something else?” he wondered.
The senator expressed his dismay: “What a waste. What a pity for our men and women in the Coast Guard.”
Zubiri said the ship could help patrol the West Philippine Sea amid Manila’s tensions with Beijing.
“But we have nothing to show for it now,” he observed. “Bureaucratic incompetence has prevailed.” /apl