Decommissioned Philippine Navy patrol ship sinks prematurely during joint exercise

A decommissioned Philippine Navy patrol ship that was slated to be expended as a stationary target in a joint military exercise sank prematurely in northern Philippine waters on Monday, May 5.

Ex-BRP Miguel Malvar (the first Philippine Navy ship to bear the name; the second is the recently acquired guided-missile corvette) was being positioned to be fired upon some 30 nautical miles off the coast of Zambales province when it began taking on water on Monday, Philippine and US military officials said in a joint statement.

The ship eventually sank at around 07:20 local time. No injuries have been reported.

Ex-Malvar was slated to be deliberately sunk as part of the ongoing Balikatan joint exercises between the Philippine and US armed forces.

The ship was originally built in 1944 as USS PCE(R)-852, a PCE(R)-848-class escort patrol craft of the US Navy. It saw service in the Pacific during the closing months of World War II.

Later renamed USS Brattleboro, the ship was handed over to the South Vietnamese Government in 1966. As RVN Ngọc Hồi, it served with the Republic of Vietnam Navy until 1975 when it escaped to the Philippines following the invasion of the South by Communist North Vietnamese forces.

The Philippine Navy formally acquired the ship in 1976 and operated it until 2021. In Philippine service, the ship was named Miguel Malvar after Miguel Carpio Malvar, a Filipino general who fought in the Philippine Revolution and the Philippine-American War.