Class overview | |
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Name | Malvar class |
Builders | Pullman Standard Car Manufacturing Co.; Albina Engine and Machine Works; Willamette Iron and Steel Corp.; Winslow Marine Railway and Shipbuilding; US |
Operators | Philippine Navy |
Succeeded by | Rizal class |
Active | 0 |
Lost | 1 |
Retired | 9 |
General characteristics | |
Type | |
Displacement |
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Length | 184.5 ft (56.2 m) |
Beam | 33 ft (10 m) |
Draft |
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Installed power |
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Propulsion |
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Speed |
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Range | 6,600 nmi at 11 knots (20 km/h) |
Complement | 85 |
Sensors and processing systems |
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Armament |
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The Malvar class is a ship class of patrol corvettes of the Philippine Navy and are currently its oldest class of corvettes. These ships were formerly used by the US Navy as Admirable-class minesweepers, and PCE-842-class and PCE(R)-848 class patrol craft, which were both based on the Admirable-class hull. In the Philippine Navy, the vessels have undergone upgrades and modifications, and have been re-categorized as corvettes. One ship, the ex-USN USS Quest was converted into a non-combatant Presidential Yacht by the Philippine Navy in 1948 as RPS Pag-asa (APO-21) (later on renamed as RPS Santa Maria, and as RPS/BRP Mount Samat)[4]
In 2021 December 10, the remaining two ships of the class were finally decommissioned, and so the remaining WW2-era vessels left during that time are the five armed transport-types (3 LCUs & 2 LSTs). That event was supposed to mark the end of the era of using WW2 combatants but supertyphoon Odette hit the Philippines just 6 days after their decommissioning, and so BRP Magat Salamat (PS-20) was forced again into service "with a volunteer force composed mainly of its last crew" to serve as a temporary command post for the duration of the relief operations in the severely affected Dinagat Islands.[5]
But to begin with, the replacements for all the WW2-era vessels was originally planned for the 2000s under the 1995-2010 Philippine Military Modernization Law, however this law was largely ignored for various reasons, including overdependence on the US via their 1951 MDT and 1998 VFA, among others. Some Filipinos blamed the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis as the core reason but in actuality the Philippine economy grew by 5.2% in 1997, only contracted -0.6% in 1998, and then quickly rebounded 3.1% in 1999, and onwards; it even weathered the Global Financial crisis of 2007-2008 where, by 2009, most countries were on the negative while the Philippines managed at 1.1%, while 7.15% and 4.15% in 2007 and 2008, respectively. The modernization law expired in 2010 February 23 without even a single hint of reviving it during that time. The Philippines only thought of reviving it when the Scarborough Shoal standoff erupted in 2012 April 8.