The Philippines is preparing to give its coastguard more responsibilities in the contested South China Sea even as the agency faces a more basic problem: whether it has enough ships, aircraft and personnel to carry them out.
The proposed overhaul comes as the coastguard is being stretched by increasingly demanding operations around Philippine-claimed waters, while funding constraints threaten to limit its ability to keep its existing assets at sea.
That tension is evident in the 2027 budget. The...