President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. gave his "go signal" for the acquisition of two 19-seater airplanes for the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG).

This was confirmed by Philippine Coast Guard spokesman Rear Admiral Armando Balilo on Wednesday. Balilo said the aircrafy will boost the maritime domain awareness capability of the PCG.

"In addition to the pronouncement of the President yesterday during our anniversary celebration that the PCG will be acquiring 40 15 meter fast boats, the President has also given us the go signal to start the bidding process of two units 19-seater airplanes that would be used to intensify our maritime domain awareness (MDA) over the West Philippine Sea (WPS)," he said.

"This will compliment the vessels deployed in the West Philippine Sea and other areas of concern while on patrol operations," he added.

Balilo said the government has allotted a budget of P1.6 billion to acquire the two planes.

He said so far the PCG only has two aircraft, an Islander plane and a Cessna plane which are both "deployed in the substations to include those detachments in the West Philippine Sea." Robina Asido/DMS