Philippines House of Reps Scraps Fighter Aircraft Budget

Philippines’ House of Representatives has scrapped a P10 billion (US $580 million) proposed allocation for procurement of more fighter planes for the nation’s air force (PAF).

“The house conferees did not accept their senate counterparts’ recommendation as it would have taken P8 billion (US $464 million) from funds allocated for conditional cash transfers (CCT) to poor families,” Davao City Rep. Isidro Ungab, House appropriations committee chairman was quoted as saying by Philstar news daily Tuesday.

The rejection was made during last week’s bicameral conference on the proposed P3 trillion (US $174 billion) 2016 national budget.

“We could not accept it because it would have sacrificed the administration’s CCT program,” he said.

He said the House conferees, with support from Sen. Ralph Recto, prevailed in their stand that P8 billion be retained in the CCT program.

Ungab said instead of the P10-billion appropriation, the conferees agreed to allocate P1 billion for the PAF for the procurement of more air assets.