The BRP Ladislao Diwa (PS-178) is an Alvarez-class patrol ship of the Philippine Navy. She is the Philippine Navy's third ship of the class and was previously a Cyclone-class patrol ship named USS Chinook (PC-9) during her service with the US Navy.
Launched as the ninth of fourteen ships of the, the primary mission of was to serve as a platform for conducting maritime special operations, including interdiction, escort, noncombatant evacuation, reconnaissance, operational deception, intelligence collection, and tactical swimmer operations. Her small size, stealthy construction and high speed were tailored to performing long-range Special Operations Forces (SOF) insertion and extraction as well as other SOF support duties as needed.
On 10 January 2023, Chinook, along with sister patrol ship and guided-missile destroyer, stopped and boarded a fishing vessel in the Gulf of Oman that was smuggling over 2000 AK-47 assault rifles.[1]
Chinook together with sistership Monsoon were decommissioned from the US Navy on 28 March 2023,[2] and were transferred to the Philippine Navy on the same day.[3]
She was rechristened as BRP Ladislao Diwa (PS-178) on 11 September 2023, in honor of a Filipino revolutionary in its war of independence from Spanish colonial rule.[4] [5] She is currently assigned to the Littoral Combat Force of the Philippine Fleet.
The ship is the first ever Philippine Navy ship to use the name.