PNoy: China tried to block S. Korea from selling jets to PHL
December 12, 2014 10:33pm



President Benigno Aquino III said that China tried to pressure South Korea to not sell a squadron of brand new FA-50 fighter jets to the Philippines worth P18.9 billion.

Asked for his thoughts on reports that China tried to stop the sale of the South Korean jets to the Philippines, Aquino said: "I think I read it in our media na may protest and Korea actually responded na.... I’m sorry I don’t remember the response. But at the end of the day, there is a transaction between two allies and [it] shouldn’t be objected to’."

"I might be paraphrasing ha, pero they didn’t agree to the request to stop the sale," Aquino said.

Pressed on whether the reported pressure from China was confirmed, he said, "Well, that was several months ago. I’ll have to Google search the particular story."

"But I assume that there is such pressure," Aquino said.

The purchase is part of a five-year, P75-billion ($1.68 billion) modernization program, which is seen to improve the Philippines' capability to defend its maritime borders against the creeping expansion of China in the South China Sea.

But defense officials in February denied that the purchase was specifically in response to the tensions between the two countries.

The Philippines is also currently in the middle of an arbitration case with China before the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague, which it filed in January 2013.

During his visit, Aquino inspected the prototype models of the lead-in fighter jets, which are said to be at par with America's F16 fighter planes.

"The last time kasi we had fighters in the inventory that was in 2005. So by next year isang dekada na ang dumaan," Aquino said.

The first batch of fighter jets will be delivered to the Philippines in 2015 while the final batch will be delivered in 2017 for a total of 12 jets. The government signed the deal with Korean Aerospace Industries Ltd. last March

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