PRRD promotes Garcia to Admiral

MANILA -- President Rodrigo R. Duterte has promoted the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) Commandant from Vice Admiral to Admiral – the highest rank of a PCG commissioned officer.

Duterte has approved the promotion of Admiral Joel Garcia effective Dec. 9, 2019. He formally took oath at the Malacañang Palace on Tuesday afternoon.

On Wednesday, officers and personnel of the PCG National Headquarters welcomed Garcia with arrival honors ceremony.

Garcia is the 26th Commandant of the PCG and the Director of the National Coast Watch Center (NCWC). He is also the

chairperson of the Governing Council of the Regional Cooperation Agreement on Combating Piracy and Armed Robbery against Ships in Asia (ReCAAP) – the first regional government-to-government agreement that promotes and enhances cooperation to counter piracy and armed robbery against ships in Asia and the Pacific.

Garcia finished his Bachelor of Science in Marine Transportation in Navigational Science at the Philippine Merchant Marine Academy (PMMA) in 1985 and pursued his Master in Shipping Business Management at the PMMA in 1993 as a full scholar.

Aside from acquiring his license as Master Mariner in 1992, he earned the 2nd place and the fourth place at the Chief Officer and Master Mariner board examinations respectively.

Garcia had a colorful seagoing career to numerous Philippine Navy (PN) ships as he served at the junior officer’s billet in various capacity and culminated as captain or skipper to several capital ships of the PCG.

The PCG Commandant utilized his vast seagoing experience as he served as a professor in Maritime Administration and Environmental Economics at the PMMA Graduate School as the chairman of the Committee on Islamic Religious Studies, and as a member of the Technical Panels in Humanities and Maritime Education of the Commission on Higher Education