Coast Guard Philippines said it will buy five French patrol boats worth more than $ 116 million to patrol the South China Sea.
A large patrol vessels, 80 m longer than the French. Photo: Ph.msn.com
Rear Admiral Luis Tuason, commander of Philippine coast guard says a ship 82 m long and 24 m 4 ship will be handed over in 2014. Mr. Tuason said that the ship mentioned above are important for patrol in the South China Sea where Manila called the West Philippine Sea.
"When we patrol the West Philippine Sea, we are faced with large waves, the moving water, so we need larger vessels," AFP quoted Tuason said.
A spokesman for the coast guard Philippines, Lieutenant Armand Balilo, also said that the big ship "capable of high performance and can be implemented in both bad weather conditions". This is the first time such a large vessel is equipped to guard Philippine coast, a spokesman said.
He said the purchase Balilo 5 French patrol vessel to deal with the situation of a territorial dispute, but the reason is because the coast guard to the new board to execute its mission. Currently only 9 forces and ship the new board will do tasks throughout the island, not only the disputed waters.
Recently, tensions between the Philippines and China over territorial disputes in the Scarborough Shoal / Huangyan China Sea. China claims sovereignty over most of the South China Sea, even waters near the coast of the neighboring countries. Southeast Asia island Shoals above statement is within the exclusive economic zone of 200 nautical miles of their country. Philippines still monitoring the situation and said the Chinese ships are still present in the Shoals area despite opposition from the Philippines.
Vu Ha
