TOKYO/MANILA -- Since the U.S. approved the potential sale of 12 F-16 fighter jets to the Philippines in 2021, Manila has been contending with the question of how to finance the costly purchase.
"It's still too expensive, so we have to find a way to be able to finance it in the long term. We want to change our [economic] growth," Jose Manuel Romualdez, Philippine ambassador to the U.S., told Nikkei Asia in an interview this month.
Among the solutions the country is considering include switching to purchases of secondhand aircraft or receiving financial aid from Washington.
When the sale was announced in June 2021, the U.S. estimated the cost of the aircraft and related equipment at $2.43 billion, more than half of the Philippines' annual defense budget. The aircraft are intended to check China's air and maritime operations in the South China Sea.
It is "possible" to cancel the tentative deal to buy new F-16s from the U.S. and to acquire secondhand aircraft from a third country such as Denmark, Romualdez said.
"[F-16s] were supposed to be available from Denmark. I think there are a dozen or more F-16s, hardly used aircraft," the ambassador said. He noted that Manila would need to amend laws to allow using the national budget for secondhand equipment.
But the Danish fighter jets are unlikely to head to the Philippines. In October, the U.S. State Department cleared the transfer of the NATO ally's F-16 aircraft to Argentina, saying in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter: "The transfer reaffirms our close defense tie and steadfast support to Argentina's air force modernization efforts."
The U.S. authorization was required before Denmark transferred the American-made aircraft to a third country.
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