100 Coast Guard men to secure bridges, rivers, ports for Black Nazarene march

MANILA, Philippines — The chief of Philippine Coast Guard disclosed on Monday that the 100 Coast Guard personnel to be deployed during Wednesday’s Feast of the Black Nazarene “will man and secure the bridges, rivers and harbors along the route of the traditional procession.”

“Based on the PCG Deployment Plan, Coast Guard Station Pasig will man the Pasig River, as well as the Quezon and Ayala bridges. For its part, Coast Guard Station Manila will cover North Harbor in Tondo while Coast Guard Port State Control will be responsible for the Quirino Grandstand and the waters in the vicinity of Manila hotel and the United States embassy,” Rear Rear Admiral Rodolfo Isorena, the PCG commandant, said in a statement.

According to Isorena, the command will “deploy three special operations groups, a helicopter, five rubber boats, two rigid hull inflatable boats, four watercrafts, three medical teams, three ambulances, and nine K-9 units.”

The procession, which is scheduled to start at 7 a.m., will be preceded by a mass at the grandstand to be officiated by Manila Archbishop Luis Antonio Cardinal Tagle.

Isorena also reported that not a single Philippine Coast Guard personnel fired a gun during the New Year revelry.

Isorena lauded the over 540 officers and 5,270 enlisted men of the agency attached to the Department of Transportation and Communications for the “zero incidence” of illegal discharge of firearms during the holidays.

“This is a manifestation of the professionalism of PCG personnel and their lasting commitment to the rule of law,” he noted.

Isorena also reminded PCG personnel to “strictly observe the Commission on Elections-imposed gun ban, which starts January 13.”