A European defense page reported that Saab offered a lease option to the Philippines for its JAS-39 Gripen C/D fighter aircraft, similar to those accepted by the Czech Republic and Hungary.
This is to make it easier for the Philippines to afford to have fighters for the Philippine Air Force as funding continues to be the biggest problem.
While a lease option may have been made, the Philippine Government may not take the option, and instead will make ways to find the needed funding for the project.
This could be through unprogrammed funding for the Fiscal Year 2023, which can be tapped to produce the 15% initial funding for the project to allow the purchase of 12+2 JAS-39C/D Gripen, the IRIS-T and Meteor BVRAAM, and the RBS-15F anti-ship missile, among others.
MaxDefense Philippines reported back in 2018 that the MRF Acquisition Project has an approved budget of Php61.2 billion, while the MRF Munition Systems Acquisition Project has an approved budget of Php11.996 billion for a total of Php73.196 billion.
F-16 Block 70 Viper remains the better option, the US has not made any arrangement to make it easy for the Philippines to afford the Viper, as the price they offered for 12 new Vipers and ammunition including AIM-120 AMRAAM and Harpoon anti-ship missiles and AIM-9X Sidewinder missiles remains at more than US$2 billion or more than Php120 billion.
The recent approval by the Swedish Government to sell the Gripen to the Philippines has made it more reasonable for the PAF to pursue the cheaper Gripen for its MRF requirements.
But as we said, it's probably not through a lease, but still an actual purchase.
In the meantime, the Marcos Administration needs balls to use the unprogrammed funds for the MRFs, and appoint a real Secretary of National Defense to allow the DND to make much more complex decisions like signing defense acquisition projects and contracts that the current OIC cannot do.