The Commandant's Compass

As 24/7 maritime guardians, the Philippine Coast Guard dedicates its best effort for the promotion of safe navigation, the security of maritime transportation system and marine environmental protection. The PCG shall be vigilant and prepared at all times to readily answer and respond to any distress call and thwart any maritime law infractions.

Aided by the availability of modern communications equipment, media and - press reports, government and private access to information and continuing conduct of community relations, the PCG's operating units are able to create a better picture of the maritime domain in their respective areas of responsibility with utmost consideration for safety, security and environmental concerns.

Vigilance is necessarily the first step in performing the PCG's various functions such vigilance, however, is useless if not translated into action. Action, on the other hand, is best done with proper training and preparation. The proper confluence of these events determines the success of every coast guard operation. To achieve this the following factors are considered Improved coordination and partnership with cognizant government agencies to facilitate greater access to information such as number or frequency of passengers, the volume of maritime traffic, potential hot spots or vulnerabilities and environmentally sensitive areas.

Enhanced partnership/cooperation with local governments to identify common areas of concern, year-round calendar of activities with particular effect to and participation of the maritime sector, and other possible areas of cooperation.

Periodic assessment of individual units' capacity to react to possible maritime scenarios and documentation of annual capacity to determine improvements achieved for specific durations.
Continuing conduct of exercises to determine strengths and weaknesses in the performance of various PCG functions and actual response time to incidents.

Holding of a Coast Guard Skills Olympics to determine the best performing/prepared unit. The rationale of this activity is not to foster competition but to encourage improvement areas in individual skills and competence, and unit preparedness.