Philippine Navy decomissioning two legacy ships

January 28, 2020

Philippine Navy will decomission two of its legacy ships in a ceremony in Cavite on Wednesday afternoon.

The ships are BRP Rizal and BRP Nicolas Mahusay in a ceremony that will be led by Flag Officer in Command Vice Admiral Robert Empedrad.

In an advisory, the Philippine Navy said the ceremony will be held in Capt. Salvo Pier, Naval Base Heracleo Alano, Sangley Point, Cavite City.

Rear Adm. Giovanni Carlo Bacordo, Philippine Navy Fleet Commander, said the decommissioning is part of the modernization of the Philippine Navy.

"We are phasing in new assets which will arrive this year, like the Jose Rizal class frigates and other vessels. We have to phase out also old vessels... because where will you get personnel to man these new assets? You have to get them from old assets. So this is part of the phase in, phase out program of the Navy," he said. 

"Second, this is part also of the directive of the flag officer in command to decomission all legacy Navy ships," he added.

Bacordo explained that these legacy Navy ships or the "World War II vintage ships which exist during Pre-Korean war" have  "outlived their usefulness".

"The PS74 ( BRP Rizal) designed speed is 20 knots, but now it could only (run), around 10 to 12 knots. ...its endurance at sea it should be able to be out at sea for around 20 days. Now it can be out at sea only for seven days continuous operations," he said.

"PC119, BRP Mahusay. designed speed (is) supposed to be 25 knots higher to 30 knots. That's... for interdiction. Now it can only run for let's say 14 knots," Bacordo said.

"So these are the reasons. These ships already outlived their uselessfulness, it  could no longer perform the missions that it is designed to perform," he added.

Bacordo did not say how many legacy ships that the Philippine Navy has but he noted that they are planning to decommission these ships every quarter.

"We still have a lot of legacy navy ships like our patrol craft escorts, like our LST, the landing ship tanks, like our mine surface frigate and then also our patrol... There are also a lot of small boats," he said.

"Little by little, (we will be) removing them from our inventory so that by the first semester of 2021 all of our ships are already modern," he added. Robina Asido/DMS