12 hours to rescue? PCG insists presence in ‘aggressive’ Ayungin incident

Due to the confidential nature of the details behind the resupply missions to the grounded BRP Sierra Madre in Ayungin (Second Thomas) Shoal, it remains unclear why it took the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) more or less 12 hours to rescue the injured Navy personnel.

In the middle of the hearing of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, Senator Imee Marcos noted that the lack of PCG vessels accompanying the resupply mission before she was cut off by Department of National Defense (DND) Sec. Gilbert Teodoro who said that there were PCG vessels present.

She was referring to the resupply mission on June 17, 2024, that turned violent leading to the dismemberment of the right thumb of Seaman First Class Underwater Operator Jeffrey Facundo.

According to Teodoro, the PCG was involved in the planning and the execution.

“Pero kasi nagulat kami bakit yung nadale militar, dati kasi hindi militar (We were surpised because it involved the military, before the military was not mentioned),” Marcos said.

While Teodoro did confirm the presence of PCG vessels during the mission, when he was asked regarding the PCG’s role in the recent mission, he said that he will discuss it in an executive session as it is part of a full tactical plan.

However, in the past, PCG vessels have been known the subject of China’s aggression whether it be dangerous maneuvers or blocking specifically when it’s escorting a regular rotation and reprovisioning mission (RORE) mission to BRP Sierra Madre.

Marcos even said that the PCG has always issued statements where there are such incidents, but during this one, no official statement was made, according to her.

In the recantation of the incident by Facundo, the presence of a PCG vessel to escort them was never mentioned, only four rigid hull inflatable boat (RHIB) for the Navy and the Marines that was used in the resupply mission.

The only time Facundo mentioned the PCG was when they were rescued by it, 12 hours later after the whole operation.

“If they were nearby and they were in the area, bakit naghintay sila Jeff, yung nasaktan, ng 12 oras (why did Jeff, who was injured, had to wait for 12 hours) to rescue a Filipino soldier who was seriously injured? It sounds like the Coast Guard was very far away,” Marcos said.

“Ang layo naman kung isang dosenang oras naghihintay ‘tong mga ‘to (It’s too far if they had to wait for 12 hours),” she added.

According to PCG Commandant Admiral Ronnie Gil Gavan, they were prepared to conduct the rescue at 8 a.m., the approximate time that Facundo recalled when the Chinese left.

To categorically address the length of time it took to rescue Facundo, Gavan said that the “whole process took more than 12 hours” citing the “tense situation”.

“We had continuously communicate with the other side employing everything we can and we succeeded eventually but it took a while,” he said.

“I would just like to disabuse the public minds that we were late. We were there and we did our best,” he said.

Marcos, still pointing out that it took a long time for the PCG to arrive asked: “Naghintay lang kayo na humupa ang tensyon, ganun?”

But Gavan said that they did not wait and did their part to accelerate the de-escalation of the tension at the time by employing their female radio operators, which he called the “angels of the sea”.

Teodoro said that the PCG performed their roles as they were supposed to.

With regards to the PCG no longer being the first to issue a statement on the matter, Teodoro’s only explanation for it is the AFP’s new discipline on operational security and information management.

Teodoro said that the recent Ayungin incident was a “deliberate aggressive action” and not a misunderstanding or accident. — Dhel Nazario