Anticipating Beijing's Aggressiveness In The South China Sea, The Philippines Purchases Two Multimission Modern Corvettes

Philippine Warship Jose Rizal Class (FF-150) guided missile frigate. (Wikimedia Commons/Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Rawad Madanat)

JAKARTA - The Philippines ordered two new warships from South Korea's Hyundai Heavy Industries to modernize its navy during a dispute with China in the South China Sea, Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said.

The Philippine Navy has continued to decline in strength in recent decades, including warships left over from World War II from the United States, before Benigno Aquino III embarked on a modernization program in 2010 while serving as president.

The 28 billion pesos ($556 million) deal on Tuesday with the South Korean shipbuilding giant comes five years after the company also won a contract to build two new frigates for the Philippine Navy.

Corvettes and frigates are small, fast warships mainly used to protect other ships from attack.

"This project will provide the Philippine Navy with two modern corvettes capable of performing anti-ship, anti-submarine, and anti-air warfare missions," Lorenzana explained in a speech at the signing ceremony in Manila, citing CNA December 29.

"The agreement will ensure commonality and interoperability with our existing assets, as well as ease of maintenance and repair," he added.

Previously, Manila had acquired two former US Coast Guard vessels and three landing craft from Australia, as well as a coast guard patrol vessel from Japan, in a bid to increase its presence in the South China Sea, where it faces a dispute with Beijing.

China's claim to nearly all of the waterway, through which trillions of dollars of trade pass every year, has faced opposition from Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan, and Vietnam.

Beijing has ignored a 2016 ruling by the Hague-based Permanent Court of Arbitration that its historical claims in the South China Sea were unfounded.