PH eyes hotline with Vietnam to ensure welfare of fisherfolk

The Philippine Coast Guard is eyeing to have a hotline with its Vietnamese counterparts to protect, secure, and monitor the fisherfolk of both countries in the resource-rich West Philippine Sea.

''There is a chance that we would establish a ‘hotline’ of communication for easier coordination in case there would be missing Vietnamese or Filipino fishermen,'' PCG spokesman Rear Admiral Armand Balilo told GMA News Online.

He said the hotline could be the second ''hotline of communication” of the PCG with another country. The PCG’s first hotline of communication is with China, Balilo added.

Balilo earlier bared that the Philippines and Vietnam would sign an agreement to strengthen maritime cooperation between the two countries.

The PCG official said the deal would be signed during President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr.'s state visit to Hanoi next week. — DVM, GMA Integrated News