2nd Philippine Warship-Alcaraz would be delay of deployment from earlier schedule

Deployment would be delay for re-fitting armament system. Mk38 Mod 2 automatic cannon systems to be fitted to Philippine Warship BRP Ramon Alcaraz. A frigate purchased by the Philippines from the United States will be among the first ships in the world to be equipped with state-of-the art cannon systems.

Philippine warship likely to be deployed by April 2013

The Philippine government may have to wait until April 2013 before it could deploy its second warship, even as the tension triggered by the conflicting ownership claims over the islands in the West Philippine Sea is expected to escalate.

Philippine Navy chief Vice Admiral Alexander Pama said on Sunday the scheduled commissioning of BRP Ramon Alcaraz would be delayed due to ongoing repairs and refitting on the Hamilton-class cutter in Charleston, South Carolina.

The 45-year-old frigate was formally acquired for ₱450 million by the Armed Forces from the US Coast Guard on May 22 as part of the US government's military assistance to the Philippines.

"The repairs are still continuing so most probably (BRP Alcaraz) will arrive in the country late March or early April next year," Pama told reporters over the phone.

He said the delay was caused mainly by the installation of the new main engine of the 3,250-ton warship, which was initially scheduled to sail from the United States last May.

"That's why we are taking this opportunity for our personnel to undergo more training," he said.

Asked if the ship would be sent to patrol the country's coastlines in the West Philippine Sea, he said "it will be deployed wherever it may be needed."

In his State of the Nation Address last July, President Benigno Aquino III announced that BRP Alcaraz would be sailing from the United States in January 2013 as part of the much-needed upgrade in the war armaments and equipment of the Armed Forces.

"We are not sending paper boats out to the sea. Now, our 36,000 kilometers of coastline will be patrolled by more modern ships," the President said, referring to the decades-old vessel which the US Coast Guard decommissioned on March 30.

Formerly called USCGC Dallas (WHEC-716), the military's second frigate was named after the late Commodore Ramon "Monching" Alcaraz, a decorated World War II hero who commanded Q-boat Abra, which shot down three Japanese aircraft.

Like its sister ship BRP Gregorio del Pilar, the warship was classified as a high-endurance cutter built in 1968. (http://is.gd/Yk9sV7)

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Philippines accepts china passport depicting Spratly Islands as China Territory

Communist China's new E passport depicting Philippines, Vietnam, Taiwan, Brunei, India, Malaysia and Indonesia territory as China's Territory. Philippines accepted for tourism economic benefit 

Philippines accepts new Chinese passports

Manila: The Philippine government has decided to accept the passports of Chinese nationals requesting for visa. The passports depict a map that includes China's claim of the entire South China Sea.

"Visa processing for Chinese e-passport continues its normal course," Foreign Affairs spokesman Raul Hernandez said, when asked if his department has rejected the passports of Chinese nationals following the government's protest and note verbale sent to the Chinese Embassy in Manila in reaction to China's newly-issued electronic passports.

The number of Chinese nationals requesting for tourist visa to the Philippines has "suddenly reached a very high number," said a source, adding this was the reason why the Philippine government has decided not to act on its protest against the new Chinese passports.

The government has been trying to lure tourists to the Philippines to raise more revenue.

China, Taiwan and Vietnam claim the whole of the South China Sea based on their historical rights over the sea-lane. Brunei, Malaysia and Philippines claim some parts of the Spratly Archipelago in the South China Sea, based on the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) which grants countries 200 nautical miles exclusive economic zone starting from their shores.

Vietnam and the Philippines have been embroiled with China's flexing of maritime and naval might in the South China Sea.

Four of the claimants belong to the 10-member countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean). Read more here (http://is.gd/xsOnDS)

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Philippine Protests Chinas’ illegal action – Calls for international sanction

Protesters in the Philippines demonstrate outside the Chinese Consulate in Manila. In the latest source of tensions between China and the Philippines, Chinese authorities announced plans to search ships that sail through a disputed territory the South China Sea. (Bullit Marquez/Associated Press)

Philippines protests China's threat to search ships

The Philippines on Saturday denounced Chinese plans to search ships sailing through what Beijing says is its territory in the South China Sea in the latest irritant between the countries.

The Department of Foreign Affairs said in a statement that the plans should be condemned by the international community because they violate maritime domains of countries in the region and impede freedom of navigation.

Chinese state media announced the plans, saying southern Hainan province, which Beijing says administers the South China Sea, had approved laws giving its police the right to search vessels that pass through the waters.

Last week the Philippines, Vietnam, Taiwan and India protested a map on a new Chinese passport that depicts disputed areas as belonging to China.

China's action blasted as 'illegal'

The Philippine statement said it wants Beijing to "immediately clarify its reported plans to interdict ships that enter what it considers its territory in the South China Sea."

It said Manila was concerned that ships entering waters claimed by China, which is "virtually the entire South China Sea … can be boarded, inspected, detained, confiscated, immobilized and expelled, among other punitive actions."

China's action will be "illegal and will validate the continuous and repeated pronouncements by the Philippines that China's claim of indisputable sovereignty over virtually the entire South China Sea is not only an excessive claim but a threat to all countries," the statement said.

The maritime territorial disputes include the Spratly Islands over which China, the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Taiwan and Brunei have conflicting claims. The Spratlys chain is believed to sit atop rich oil and gas reserves and straddles one of the world's busiest sea lanes. (http://is.gd/tYZlTi)

CBC News 

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