OPAV, agencies create Visayan sea task force

The Office of the Presidential Assistant for the Visayas (OPAV)formed an Inter-Agency Task Force on Maritime Safety that will help the fight against terrorism and illegal activities at sea and in seaports.

Presidential Assistant Michael Lloyd Dino led the signing of the memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the different agencies in Regions 6, 7 and 8 last Wednesday.

The group is tasked to promote and ensure cooperation in the field of maritime safety and security in the Visayas seas and coasts.

Dino said that the agencies part of the task force are encouraged to develop proactive and reactive plans and programs aimed toward securing the archipelagic waters.

The MOU also provides that unregistered vessels will be apprehended and confiscated as part of strengthening the security on local ports.

The MOU also states that illegal constructed ports will be dismantled in order to prevent illegal activities and the movement of criminal groups.

The task force will be headed by the Central Command and cochaired by the representatives of the Philippine Coast Guard in each region.

Other signatories of the MOU were the Bureau of Customs Port of Cebu District Collector Elvira Cruz, Cebu Port Authority General Manager Angelo Verdan, Police Regional Office 7 Director Noli Taliño, Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources 7 Director Allan Poquita, the Philippine Ports Authority, Maritime Industry Authority, Department of Interior and Local Government, Armed Forces of the Philippines, and Philippine Navy, among others.

The Cebu City Government, meanwhile, is planning to invest on a surveillance system to monitor the city’s coastal areas.

It will have a thermal imaging scanner that will detect anything in the seawaters.

It will also be used during retrieval operations, particularly when vessels sink.

The surveillance system will become a major component of the city’s maritime task group, said Mayor Tomas Osmeña.

“My concern is not the threat of terrorism, but how to find survivors floating in the water after the sinking because we are very poor in that area,” he said.

Osmeña said he will entrust the fight against terrorism to the OPAV’s task force.

Osmeña did not directly express support for the task force but added that the City will help and coordinate with them if it will bring good.

The City’s maritime group will be headed by the Bantay Dagat office.

He hopes to set up the surveillance system before his term ends. /