The Philippine Navy commissioned two recently acquired patrol vessels in a ceremony in Manila on Monday, September 11.
The two former US Navy Cyclone-class coastal patrol ships ex-USS Monsoon and ex-USS Chinook have been formally welcomed into Philippine service as BRP Valentin Diaz and BRP Ladislao Diwa, respectively. The vessels' new names were selected to honour two key figures of the Philippine independence movement of the 1890s.
The vessels were formally handed over to the Philippine government in March of this year after they were decommissioned from US Navy service. In their final years in US service, they were operated as forward-deployed vessels at Naval Support Activity Bahrain to support US Naval Forces Central Command's operations in the Middle East.
Ex-Monsoon and ex-Chinook are the second and third Cyclone-class patrol ships to be handed over to the Philippines after class lead ship ex-USS Cyclone, which was renamed BRP General Mariano Alvarez upon its recommissioning in 2004.