USS Philippine Sea (Wikipedia)

Cagayan de Oro City 2nd District Rep. Rufus Rodriguez has asked the United States (US) to donate a soon-to-be decommissioned warship so that the Philippine government may repurpose it for deployment to the West Philippine Sea (WPS). 

Rodriguez was referring to the warship USS Philippine Sea, set to be deactivated in 2025. 

The Mindanao lawmaker made the appeal in letters to State Secretary Anthony Blinken, Defense Secretary Lloyd James Austin III and US Ambassador to Manila MaryKay Carlson. 

Rodriguez said Tuesday, Oct. 15 that if the USS Philippine Sea--which the US government may further refurbish--is donated to the Philippines, the government could use it to augment Navy and coast guard patrols around the archipelago, including in the WPS. 

“I am sure that it will be a big asset in our efforts to defend our territorial waters, our sovereign rights, and our personnel and fishermen from intruders,” he said. 

The US warship is a Flight II Ticonderoga-class guided missile cruiser on active service in the US Navy. It was commissioned on March 18, 1989. 

In his letters to the three US officials, Rodriguez said the USS Philippine Sea was “named for the Battle of the Philippine Sea during World War II". 

It has completed multiple deployments as part of Operation Enduring Freedom, the official name used by the US government for its global war against terrorism, from 2001 to 2014. 

It was also recently deployed in eastern Mediterranean in response to Israel’s war against Hamas and in US encounters with Houthis. 

Rodriguez said it was the USS Philippine Sea that rescued 26 Filipino crew members of the Marshall Islands-owned, Liberian-flagged supertanker Brillante Virtuoso, after the ship’s superstructure was set on fire following a reported attack by pirates using rocket-propelled grenades southwest of Aden in Yemen. 

“With its historical background and its name being apropos and relevant to the current issue on our [WPS] sovereign rights being illegally challenged by China, may I request that the USS Philippine Sea be donated to the Philippines,” the solon wrote. 

“This will be a very good gesture and it will further strengthen the iron-clad commitment and strong friendship between the United States of America and the Philippines,” he said.