The Philippine government will continue buying military aircraft, including a C-130, amid accidents involving the assets of the Philippine Air Force (PAF) since January 2021.

"We have in our program the acquisition of two brand new C130 that was previously approved by the Congress. We are arranging the documents for the procurement. We also have three C295 a much smaller transport plane and four N212 from Indonesia the smallest transport plane so we still continue the acquisition of airplanes," Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said.

The AFP is coming off its worst air mishap as a C-130 carrying soldiers crashed in Sulu. Forty nine perished while 47 were injured.

The PAF has one working C-130 while two are under maintenance. The C-130 is considered a workhorse of the military. It also used in transporting vaccines against COVID-19 to the provinces.

"Now the PAF also wants to procure fighter jets. They are still working on the proponent that they want. So these are on our programs. Hopefully we will be able to finish the contract this year, so that the next administration will just have to implement this procurement," he added.

In a previous interview, Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) chief Gen. Cirilito Sobejana said the C-130 plane crash in Sulu last Sunday is the fourth incident involving the PAF this year.

The first three incidents involved a UH1H helicopter crash in Bukidnon in January, followed by MD520MG chopper mishap in Bohol in April, then the S-70i Blackhawk incident in Tarlac in June.

As part of the standard operating procedures, the Philippine Air Force grounded the fleet of the aircraft involved in crashes. Robina Asido/DMS