Philippines receives vessel donated by coast guard

A patrol vessel donated by the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) to the Philippines was commissioned into the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) on Friday, a Philippine non-governmental organization said.

The CGA on Sept. 16 confirmed media reports that Taiwan had donated a retired 500-tonne patrol vessel to the Philippines. The Manila-based We Protect Our Seas (WPS) foundation, which served as an intermediary in the transfer, said that the vessel was formerly the CGA’s 500-tonne petrol vessel Kinmen (CG123).

The WPS, in a statement issued on Friday, said the vessel, renamed as the BRP Sarangani, had been commissioned into the PCG the same day.

The Philippine Coast Guard vessel BRP Sarangani, donated by Taiwan, is pictured in an undated photograph.

Photo: Screen grab from the WPS Foundation’ s Facebook page

The vessel is about 61m long and 11.7m wide, with a full-load displacement of about 688 tonnes, the foundation said.

“It gives the PCG an additional platform for maritime patrols, search and rescue, humanitarian assistance and disaster response, marine environmental protection, training, and other civilian missions,” it said.

The donation reflects how far maritime cooperation between the peoples of Taiwan and the Philippines has come since the “difficult” 2013 incident involving a Taiwanese fishing vessel, the statement said, alluding to the fatal shooting by the PCG of a Taiwanese fisherman aboard his vessel, which was operating in an area where the exclusive economic zones of the two countries overlap.

“Both sides have since worked to prevent similar incidents and to build cooperation in areas such as maritime safety, and search and rescue,” the WPS said.

WPS president and CEO Jeffrey Ordaniel said the parties involved “began discussing the possible donation and transfer in December 2025.”

“It took months of quiet discussions and coordination to get it across the finish line,” he said.

“One of the main challenges was navigating the political sensitivities surrounding the Philippines’ ‘one China’ policy,” he said, adding there had been no violation of the policy throughout the transfer.

The organization also had to work through funding issues related to the ship’s refurbishment, Ordaniel said.

“In the end, we were able to secure the transfer at no cost to the Philippine government,” he said.

He said the ship would be deployed in Mindanao to help secure shipping routes and the maritime environment in the area, adding that “the vessel transfer certainly advanced the friendship and shared values of the people of both sides of the Luzon Strait.”

The WPS Foundation on its Web site says that it seeks to advance “principled approaches” to resolving maritime disputes in the Philippine and South China seas through research and dialogue with academia, public policy, military and industry.

It is also the coordinating organization of the Manila Dialogue on the South China Sea and the Dialogue on ASEAN Maritime Security.