3rd cutter from US to arrive in PH

BRP Andres Bonifacio. Photo by Frances Ann Mangosing/INQUIRER.net FILE PHOTO

The country’s third Hamilton-class cutter from the United States, the BRP Andres Bonifacio (FF17), will arrive next week in Manila.

“She’ll be here on December 8 at Manila South Harbor,” Navy chief Vice Admiral Ronald Mercado told reporters at Camp Aguinaldo.

The ship left the US Coast Guard in Alameda Base, California early this month after three months of sea trials.

It passed by San Diego, Hawaii and is now on its last stop in Guam for refuel and reprovision before it reaches the Philippines.

The ship was named after Andres Bonifacio, as a recognition for him as a revolutionary leader and the president of the Tagalog Republic. It is also as a recognition for him as de facto national hero of the Philippines.

It is skippered by Captain Brendo J. Casaclang.

When US President Barack Obama visited the Philippines last year, he pledged this former US Coast Guard cutter to the Philippines, along with a research vessel, now known as BRP Gregorio Velasquez (AGR702), in a bid to boost the Philippine Navy’s maritime capabilities amid China’s massive claims in the South China Sea.

The sister ships of BRP Andres Bonifacio are BRP Gregorio del PIlar (FF15) and BRP Ramon Alcaraz (FF16). RAM

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