Philippine Navy
| Philippine Navy Hukbong Dagat ng Pilipinas Armada Filipina |
|
|---|---|
Seal of the Philippine Navy
|
|
| Founded | May 20, 1898 |
| Country |
 Philippines |
| Type | Navy |
| Size | 24,000 active personnel 15,000 reserve personnel |
| Part of |
Department of National Defense Armed Forces of the Philippines |
| Headquarters | Manila, Philippines |
| Ships | 4 frigates 11 corvettes 1 amphibious transport dock 4 amphibious landing ships 11 landing craft (heavy) 36 patrol boats |
| Engagements |
Philippine Revolution Spanish–American War Philippine–American War World War II Communist Insurgencies Islamic Insurgencies Scarborough Shoal standoff Zamboanga City crisis |
| Website | www |
| Commanders | |
| Flag Officer in-Command | Vice Admiral Ronald Joseph S. Mercado (36th FOIC) |
| Insignia | |
| Pennant |  |
| Jack |  |
| Flag |  |
| Battledress identification patch |  |
| Aircraft flown | |
| Helicopter | AgustaWestland AW109 Power |
| Patrol | BN-2 Islander |
The Philippine Navy (PN; Filipino: Hukbong Dagat ng Pilipinas; Spanish: Armada Filipina) is the naval warfare service branch of the Armed Forces of the Philippines and one of the three uniformed services of the Philippines. It has an estimated strength of 24,000 active service personnel.
"To organize, train, equip, maintain, develop and deploy forces for prompt and sustained naval and maritime. operations in support of the Unified Commands in the accomplishment of the AFP mission".
Its powers and functions are as follows:
Before the Spanish arrived in the Philippines the ancient peoples there were engaging in naval warfare, trade, piracy, travel and communication using balangay. A flotilla of balangay was discovered in the late 1970s in Butuan City, Agusan del Norte.
Philippine ships, such as the karakao 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 this raids, somethime 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 reaiders spoke a different language and had an entirely different appearance (presumably when compared to the inhabitants of Formosa).
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Wikipedia