The Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) is buying nearly 100 new patrol boats to protect the country’s fisheries, an official said on Monday. The BFAR, an agency under the Department of Agriculture, currently has a fleet of 20 patrol boats that are manned by Coast Guard personnel. A BFAR patrol boat was recently involved in a standoff with a Taiwanese Coast Guard vessel off the waters of Batanes. Confrontations between Philippine and Taiwan Coast Guard ships in their common maritime border rose recently after the 2013 fatal shooting of a Taiwanese fisherman by a Philippine Coast Guard patrol there.

BFAR buying 100 patrol boats. (2015, June 23). The Manila Times, pp. A1, A7.