LOOK: PH, Australian Navy ships hold passing exercise

Australian Navy ships hold passing exercise with Philippine warship BRP Ramon Alcaraz in Subic, Zambales on Sunday, Oct. 11. The Australian ships were on a five-day goodwill visit to the Philippines. / PHILIPPINE NAVY

Two Australian Navy ships held a passing exercise (Passex) with the Philippine warship BRP Ramon Alcaraz at the vicinity of Grande Island in Subic, Zambales on Sunday, the Philippine Navy said.

The HMAS Arunta and Sirius went on a five-day visit (Oct. 7 to 11) to the Philippines for a goodwill visit after concluding successful exercises in the Indian Ocean.

For the Passex, the ships conducted maneuvering, visual communications and publication exercises utilizing the code for unplanned encounters at sea (CUES), a non-binding rules-of-the-road agreement between the 21-member countries of the Western Pacific Naval Symposium.

CUES offers a safety measure and a means to limit mutual interference, to limit uncertainty and to facilitate communication when naval ships encounter each other in an unplanned manner, Navy public affairs chief Commander Lued Lincuna said.

Both ships have links to the Philippines, the Australian Embassy earlier said.

The first HMAS Arunta took part in the liberation of the Philippines in 1944, including pre-landing bombardments at Leyte Gulf and the Battle of Surigao Strait.  In January 1945, the ship had a near miss from a kamikaze (a Japanese pilot trained to do suicidal attack with his plane) at Lingayen Gulf.

In July 1946 the first HMAS Arunta carried Commodore John Collins to Manila for the inauguration of the Philippine Republic.

The recently concluded visits involved several confidence-building activities between Philippine Navy personnel and their counterparts that involved ship tour, courtesy calls and sports events.

“The Philippines is just one of the ports of call of the Royal Australian Navy ships as part of their South East Asia deployment,” Lincuna said. AU