Philippine lighthouses to undergo repairs
Posted on | January 11, 2011 |
The future of the “lonely sentinels of the sea” — as architectural historian Manuel Maximo Noche Lopez del Castillo calls the network of 19th-century lighthouses in the Philippines — is looking brighter with the much-improved finances of the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) for this year.
With an increased budget, the PCG said it can now intensify its lighthouse repair program and thereby promote the safe navigation of ships and fishing boats in the country’s numerous waterways.
This year, the agency will be upgrading the country’s 513 operating lighthouses and reviving about 43 others that are not operational, said Adm. Wilfredo Tamayo, the PCG commandant.
For years, because of the Coast Guard’s perennial lack of funds and personnel, the lighthouses have rapidly deteriorated.In a report, Tamayo said that with the repairs and upgrades last year, the overall operational efficiency of lighthouses improved — from 85 percent during the first half of the year to 92 percent in the second semester.
This year, he said the Coast Guard aims to improve the overall lighthouse operational efficiency to at least 95 percent and with the agency’s increased 2011 budget, it has every chance of achieving this.
The Coast Guard’s budget was increased from P2 billion in 2010 to P3 billion this year. The agency, however, has many other priorities such as the acquisition of new vessels and aircraft for patrol and rescue missions and the recruitment of 1,000 new personnel in the next two years.
Most of the lighthouses, usually charged by solar power, are not manned 24/7. While many have timers and automatically turn on at night or when the skies turn dark, others have to be manually turned on by a PCG civilian employee.(Ogie Salvador)
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