PH Coast Guard commissions refurbished patrol vessel from Taiwan
A refurbished patrol vessel from the Taiwan Coast Guard formally entered Philippine service on Friday, renamed the BRP Sarangani (6177).
The 61-meter-long ship was added to the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) fleet at no cost to the government, according to a nongovernmental group which first acquired the vessel and donated it to the PCG.
The vessel, formerly named Kinmen (CG123) in Taiwan, was formally turned over to the PCG on Sept. 21 and commissioned on Oct. 2, according to the We Protect our Seas (WPS) Foundation.
Built in 2008, the fully refurbished vessel was acquired by the WPS Foundation and donated to the PCG for civilian maritime use.
BRP Sarangani is about 61 meters long, with a beam of 11.7 meters and a displacement of around 688 tons. It may be used for maritime patrols, search and rescue, humanitarian assistance and disaster response, marine environmental protection and training.
“Our objective was straightforward: if we could bring a capable vessel to the Philippine Coast Guard without asking Filipino taxpayers to foot the bill, we should find a way to make it happen,” WPS Foundation president and CEO Jeffrey Ordaniel said.
“It took months of work, but we reached an arrangement that worked,” he added.
Ordaniel is also an associate professor of international security studies at the Tokyo International University in Japan.
PCG clarification
On Saturday, Rear Adm. Jay Tarriela of the PCG sought to clarify how the vessel was added to the fleet.
‘’The donation of the Taiwan Coast Guard vessel did not come from Taiwan. It came from the foundation. We did not accept the donation from the Taiwanese Coast Guard,’’ said Tarriela, the PCG spokesperson on West Philippine Sea issues. “It was transferred to the PCG because it was the foundation who donated it to the PCG.’’
The WPS Foundation was founded in 2024, according to its LinkedIn page. It describes itself as a Philippine-registered, nongovernmental, nonprofit, nonpartisan and volunteer-based organization focused on research, policy dialogue and engagement on disputes in the West Philippine Sea and the broader South China Sea.
It coordinates the Manila Dialogue on the South China Sea and serves as the Philippine committee of the Council for Security Cooperation in the Asia Pacific.
The foundation said the Taiwan Coast Guard Administration and the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in the Philippines helped facilitate the transfer, with support from the Manila Economic and Cultural Office (Meco).
“Every additional capable vessel means more presence at sea, more capacity for search and rescue, and more options when the Coast Guard is called upon to respond,” Ordaniel said.
The addition of BRP Sarangani comes as the PCG continues to deploy its vessels for extended patrols and monitoring missions amid encounters with Chinese ships in the West Philippine Sea and other areas within the Philippine exclusive economic zone (EEZ).
PH-Taiwan maritime ties
The commissioning came on the same day that three Taiwan Coast Guard vessels were spotted near a PCG ship shadowing a Chinese research vessel and its two China Coast Guard escorts near the outer limit of the Philippine EEZ in the Luzon Strait.
The PCG said Friday that BRP Teresa Magbanua, its largest cutter, was shadowing Chinese research vessel Jia Hai Ke 7 and China Coast Guard vessels CCG-2503 and CCG-14608 as they moved north from waters off Batanes.
Taiwan Coast Guard vessels TCG 1001, TCG 1002 and TCG 126 were also operating near Teresa Magbanua, according to the PCG. (See related story on Page A4)
The transfer adds another dimension to maritime ties between the Philippines and Taiwan, which have established mechanisms to manage fishing disputes and have coordinated in rescue operations.
In May 2023, the Taiwan Coast Guard rescued two Filipino fishermen from Batanes after they became stranded at sea near Kaohsiung when their boat suffered engine failure amid bad weather.
The fishermen had left Itbayat, Batanes, on May 3 and were rescued on May 7. Meco thanked Taiwanese authorities for their assistance and helped arrange their return to the Philippines.
In 2019, the PCG also coordinated with a Taiwanese fishing vessel after its crew rescued three Filipino fishermen who had been adrift for four days off northern Luzon. The fishermen were later transferred to BRP Malabrigo and brought back to Batanes.
Manila and Taipei earlier signed an agreement on cooperation in fisheries law enforcement in November 2015, establishing mechanisms for handling encounters involving fishing vessels in their overlapping EEZs.
The agreement provides for coordination and emergency notification between the two sides and the prompt release of detained fishing vessels and crews.
More room to grow
The agreement followed the May 2013 killing of Taiwanese fisherman Hung Shih-cheng after PCG personnel opened fire on the fishing vessel Guang Ta Hsin No. 28 in the Balintang Channel. Eight Coast Guard personnel were later convicted of homicide over his death.
The WPS Foundation said there was room for further cooperation in search and rescue, maritime safety, fisheries, humanitarian assistance and disaster response and marine environmental protection, consistent with the Philippines’ One China policy.
“Ultimately, this is now a PCG vessel. What matters is the service it provides to the Filipino people,” Ordaniel said.
