STRONG CONNECTION. Citizens’ Support Your Navy Foundation chairman Eduardo Santos on Tuesday (Feb. 27, 2024) said his organization donated three Starlink kits to troops stationed at Pag-asa Island to give them better internet access. The former Philippine Navy flag officer-in-command is seen in the undated photo during a Maritime Academy of Asia and the Pacific (MAAP) function. (Photo from MAAP Facebook account)
PUERTO PRINCESA, Palawan – A non-government organization (NGO) that has been helping the Philippine Navy (PN) fill its logistical gaps donated three Starlink kits to troops stationed in the municipality of Kalayaan in this province.
In an interview on Tuesday, Vice Admiral Eduardo Santos (ret.), chairman of the Citizens’ Support Your Navy Foundation (CSYNF), said the satellite internet devices are to help the various naval units stationed in the country’s most remote town attain reliable online connectivity despite being detached from the Palawan mainland.
“I personally handed over the Starlink kits to our boys (PN personnel) there (Pag-asa Island) last Friday (Feb. 23) during a brief visit. They needed at least three units because the military facilities are spread out over a wide area. And teachers at the school over there have requested for internet access… so, they might also benefit from the equipment we delivered,” he noted.
Additionally, the CSYNF also donated 18 cot beds for the use of military personnel on the island amid their growing presence in the contested area.
Santos added that his organization is supporting efforts to build a viable sewage system for inhabitants of the 32.7-hectare island.
He said improvements in the island’s waste treatment and disposal facilities have become necessary given its growing military and civilian population.
“It’s turning out to be an engineering problem… but it can be solved. What we are trying to avoid is for the wastewater to be released into the waters around the island because that will present a sanitation problem,” he added.
Santos said the CSYNF is also supporting efforts to develop Kalayaan town into a tourism destination as a means of growing the local economy and further establishing Philippine sovereignty over that portion of the West Philippine Sea (WPS).
He said the CSYNF is an organization composed of people from various professions who have made it their advocacy to help the PN with its various material deficiencies.
Santos is currently the president of the Maritime Academy of Asia and the Pacific (MAAP), a school based in Mariveles, Bataan.
In 1999, he was the flag officer-in-command of the PN when the BRP Sierra Madre ran aground in Ayungin Shoal in the WPS. (PNA)
