Coast Guard gets free lot for Basilan station
TIMRA Reports • 10:30 AM Thu Sep 22, 2022
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By:
John M. Unson
Mayor Roderick Furigay and Captain Rejard Marfe at the Lamitan City government center. (From Lamitan City LGU)
The Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) is setting up another emergency response base in Basilan, this time on a 1,000-square meter seaside area donated by the Lamitan City government.
The PCG has an operation center in Isabela City, about 28 kilometers away, one of two cities in Basilan that also has 11 municipalities.
In separate statements Wednesday, the PCG offices in the cities of Zamboanga and Isabela said Coast Guard officials were elated with the lot donation, sealed with a document signed on September 15 by Lamitan City Mayor Roderick Furigay and Captain Rejard Marfe.
Marfe is a PCG district commander in Mindanao. He and Furigay affixed their signatures to the document during a simple rite at the mayor's office in Lamitan City.
Furigay said the 1,000-square-meter lot they donated to PCG, located in Barangay Kulaybato in Lamitan City, is owned by their local government unit.
He said they are ready to help the PCG put up a station in the area too.
“Basilan is an island and the setting up of a new Coast Guard station in Lamitan City is important,” Furigay said in a statement emailed early on to different media outfits.
Marfe said they are thankful to the Lamitan City LGU for the donation.
The crafting of the deed of donation was preceded by the grant by the central office of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency to the Lamitan City mayor’s office of a plaque of appreciation detailing PDEA’s gratitude for the support of local officials to its anti-narcotics campaign in barangays under their jurisdiction.
The plaque was personally turned over to Furigay, at the city hall, by the most senior PDEA officer in Basilan, Charishmon Labado.
The certificate of appreciation on the plaque was signed by PDEA Director General Wilkins Villanueva.