President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. told the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) to always be on their toes to confront whatever threats coming through the country's coastlines.

During the oath taking of PCG officers, Marcos recognized that the role of the Coast Guard has become "more intense" due to the many incidents in the past few years.

The President said from its primary role of search and rescue and patrolling the boundaries, things have changed for the organization, noting many duties that once belonged to the Navy have been transferred to the Coast Guard.

“The reason for this is very simple. We do that so that we will not raise the tensions by putting in units and assets of the Philippine military into the area. At because sinasabi natin (we are saying) these are not military vessels, they are Coast Guard,” he said.

“But as many of the incidents have started to show over the past few years, that mission has become more, shall we say, intense. Now you are expected to defend not only the coastline, but to defend our nationals," he stressed.

Due to the Coast Guard’s "very important mission," the President said upgrading the PCG’s capabilities, facilities, and equipment is "critical to the safety" of Filipinos and the country's territory.

“This is something that is critical to the safety of the citizens of the Philippines. It is critical in the defense of the Republic. It is critical to the defense of our territory,” Marcos said.

The chief executive further said that "we must guard ourselves, we must be ready and aware and industrious in the work that we do to make sure that we do not have any untoward incidents, that we do not have any mistakes, we do not have any misunderstandings that might cause the problem to escalate out of our control."