Philippine Navy
The Philippine Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the Armed Forces of the Philippines. It has an estimated strength of 24,500 active service personnel, including the 10,300-strong Philippine Marine Corps. It operates 92 combat vessels, 16 auxiliary vessels, 27 manned aircraft and 8 unmanned aerial vehicles. Tracing its roots from the Philippine Revolutionary Navy on May 20, 1898, while its modern foundations were created during the creation of the Offshore Patrol on February 9, 1939, the PN is currently responsible for naval warfare operations and maritime patrol missions within the Philippine Waters, as well as ensuring the protection of the Philippine's maritime interests, including the West Philippine Sea and Benham Rise.
It shares the responsibility of patrolling the maritime borders with the Philippine Coast Guard, a formerly attached unit which became a separate maritime law enforcement agency in 1998. The PN is also responsible for anti-piracy missions on the Sulu Sea, and also deploys naval assets for humanitarian assistance operations in the aftermath of disasters. The PN's headquarters is located in Naval Station Jose Andrada in Manila, and is currently led by the Flag Officer-in-Command of the Philippine Navy, who holds the rank of Vice Admiral.
It has two type Commands under it, namely the Philippine Fleet and the Philippine Marine Corps. The Philippine Fleet is responsible in its naval platforms while the Philippine Marine Corps provides it with amphibious forces.
History
Pre-colonial period
Before the Spaniards arrived in the Philippines the ancient native people were already engaging in naval warfare, raiding, trade, piracy, travel and communication using various vessels including balangay. A flotilla of balangay was discovered in the late 1970s in Butuan, Agusan del Norte.File:Caracoa.jpg|thumb|200px|left|A Karakoa ancient warship with Lantaka cannons
Native Visayan warships, such as the Karakoa or Korkoa, were of excellent quality and some of them were used by the Spaniards in expeditions against rebellious tribes and Dutch and British forces. Some of the larger rowed vessels held up to a hundred rowers on each side besides a contingent of armed troops. Generally, the larger vessels held at least one lantaka at the front of the vessel or another one placed at the stern. Philippine sailing ships called praos had double sails that seemed to rise well over a hundred feet from the surface of the water. Despite their large size, these ships had double outriggers. Some of the larger sailing ships, however, did not have outriggers.
Antecedent to these raids, sometime between A.D. 1174 and 1190, a traveling Chinese government bureaucrat Chau Ju-Kua reported that a certain group of "ferocious raiders of China's Fukien coast" which he called the "Pi-sho-ye," believed to have lived on the southern part of Formosa. In A.D. 1273, another work written by Ma Tuan Lin, which came to the knowledge of non-Chinese readers through a translation made by the Marquis D’Hervey de Saint-Denys, gave reference to the Pi-sho-ye raiders, thought to have originated from the southern portion of Formosa. However, the author observed that these readers spoke a different language and had an entirely different appearance.
In the Battle of Manila in 1365 is an unspecified and disputed battle occurring somewhere in the vicinity of Manila between the forces of the Kingdoms in Luzon and the Empire of Majapahit.
Even though the exact dates and details of this battle remain in dispute, there are claims of the conquest of the area around Saludong according to the text Nagarakretagama.
Nevertheless, there may have been a battle for Manila that occurred during that time but it was likely a victory for Luzon's kingdoms considering that the Kingdom of Tondo had maintained its independence and was not enslaved under another ruler. Alternatively, Luzon may have been successfully invaded but was able to regain its independence later.
The Luzones people, coming from Luzon and its kingdoms eventually came to become naval powers in Southeast Asia, as Luzones mercenaries where used in wars across Southeast Asia. The former sultan of Malacca decided to retake his city from the Portuguese with a fleet of ships from Lusung in 1525 AD. One famous Luzones was Regimo de Raja, who had been appointed by the Portuguese at Malacca as Temenggung or Governor and General. Pires noted that Luzones and Malays had settled in Mjmjam and lived in two separate settlements and were "often at variance" or in rivalry with each other.
Pinto noted that there were a number of Luzones in the Islamic fleets that went to battle with the Portuguese in the Philippines during the 16th century. In 1539 Filipinos formed part of a Batak-Menangkabau army which besieged Aceh, as well as of the Acehnese fleet which raised the siege under command of Turkish Heredim Mafamede sent out from Suez by his uncle, Suleiman, Viceroy of Cairo. When this fleet later took Aru on the Strait of Malacca, it contained 4,000 Muslims from Turkey, Abyssinia, Malabar, Gujarat and Luzon, and following his victory, Heredim left a hand-picked garrison there under the command of a Filipino by the name of Sapetu Diraja. Sapetu Diraja, was then assigned by the Sultan of Aceh the task of holding Aru in 1540.
Pinto also says one was named leader of the Malays remaining in the Moluccas Islands after the Portuguese conquest in 1511. Pigafetta notes that one of them was in command of the Brunei fleet in 1521.
However, the Luzones did not only fight on the side of the Muslims. Pinto says they were also apparently among the natives of the Philippines who fought the Muslims in 1538.
On Mainland Southeast Asia, Luzones aided the Burmese king in his invasion of Siam in 1547 AD. At the same time, Luzones fought alongside the Siamese king and faced the same elephant army of the Burmese king in the defence of the Siamese capital at Ayuthaya. Luções military and trade activity reached as far as Sri Lanka in South Asia where Lungshanoid pottery made in Luzon were discovered in burials.
The Battle of Bangkusay, on June 3, 1571, was a naval engagement that marked the last resistance by locals to the Spanish Empire's occupation and colonization of the Pasig River Delta, which had been the site of the indigenous polities of Rajahnate of Maynila and Tondo. Tarik Sulayman, the chief of Macabebes, refused to ally with the Spanish and decided to mount an attack at Bangkusay Channel on Spanish forces, led by Miguel López de Legazpi. Tarik Sulayman's forces were defeated, and Sulayman himself was killed. The Spanish victory in Bangkusay and Legazpi's alliance with Lakandula of Tondo, enabled the Spaniards to establish themselves throughout the city and its neighboring towns.
Spanish period
During the Spanish period, the Spanish forces were entirely responsible for the defense and general order of the archipelago, the Spanish naval forces conducts maritime policing in the seas as well as providing naval logistics to the Army. In the early years of Spanish era, most of the formations of the naval forces were composed of conquistadors backed with native auxiliaries.Aside from Spanish Navy galleons, brigantines, galleys and other vessels, locally built Manila galleons were among the ships that composed the fleet tasked of protecting the archipelago from foreign and local invaders. Most of the personnel manning the ships are Filipinos while the officers are of Spanish descent.
The Battles of La Naval de Manila were among the earliest naval conflict in the Spanish Philippines. It was a series of five naval battles fought in the waters of the Spanish East Indies in the year 1646, in which the forces of the Spanish Empire repelled various attempts by forces of the Dutch Republic to invade Manila, during the Eighty Years' War. The Spanish forces, consisted of two, and later, three Manila galleons, a galley and four brigantines. They neutralized a Dutch fleet of nineteen warships, divided into three separate squadrons. Heavy damage was inflicted upon the Dutch squadrons by the Spanish forces, forcing the Dutch to abandon their invasion of the Philippines.
By the 18th and 19th centuries, the sailors were already composed of mixed Spanish and Filipino personnel, as well as volunteer battalions composed of all-Filipino volunteers. Filipinos made up a large part of Spain's overseas forces including the Royal Spanish Navy.
Philippine revolution
At the outbreak of the Philippine Revolution, the Filipino members of the Spanish Army and Navy mutinied and switched allegiance from Spain to the Philippines.The Republic's need for a naval force was first provided for by Filipino revolutionaries when they included a provision in the Biák-na-Bató Constitution. This authorised the government to permit privateers to engage foreign enemy vessels.
On May 1, 1898, the first ship handed by Admiral George Dewey to the Revolutionary Navy is a small pinnace from the Reina Cristina of Admiral Patricio Montojo, which was named Magdalo.
The Philippine Navy was established during the second phase of the Philippine Revolution when General Emilio Aguinaldo formed the Revolutionary Navy which was initially composed of a small fleet of eight Spanish steam launches captured from the Spaniards. The ships were refitted with 9-centimeter guns. The rich, namely Leon Apacible, Manuel Lopez and Gliceria Marella de Villavicencio, later donated five other vessels of greater tonnage, the Taaleño, the Balayan, the Bulusan, the Taal and the Purísima Concepción. The 900-ton inter-island tobacco steamer further reinforced the fleet, Compania de Filipinas, captained by Cuban-Filipino Vicente Catalan who was proclaimed an admiral of the Philippine Navy, this was joined by steam launches purchased from China and other watercraft donated by wealthy patriots.
Naval stations were later established to serve as ships' home bases in the following:
On September 26, 1898, Aguinaldo appointed Captain Pascual Ledesma as Director of the Bureau of the Navy, assisted by Captain Angel Pabie. After the passing of the Malolos Constitution the Navy was transferred from the Ministry of Foreign Relations to the Department of War headed by Gen. Mariano Trías.
As the tensions between Filipinos and Americans erupted in the 1899 and a blockade on naval forces by the Americans continued, the Philippine naval forces started to be decimated.