Philippine Air Force to build more bases, expand operations

The Philippine Air Force received FA-50PH aircraft made by a Korean manufacturer in 2017. (Photo: EPA/VNA)

This year, President Rodrigo Duterte said the PAF completed the acquisition of air defense surveillance radars, utility aircraft and unmanned aerial vehicles to complement its existing air assets.

He said the government is working on the implementation of the second horizon of the revised Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) Modernization Programme by 2022 with 16 projects for the PAF worth over 139 billion pesos (around 2.6 billion USD) already in the pipeline.

Meanwhile, PAF chief Lieut. Gen. Galileo Gerald Kintanar said the PAF has recently signed an agreement with the Palawan provincial administration to convert a 300-hectare land on Balabac island in the southern tip off Palawan into a base.

Kintanar said the PAF has also inked a similar agreement to build a base in Lal-lo, a town in Cagayan province on Luzon island.

The PAF has intensified engagement with the air forces of Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Australia, Britain and the US in line with the Duterte administration's independent foreign policy, he added./.

VNA