{"id":233921,"date":"2019-10-08T21:14:09","date_gmt":"2019-10-09T01:14:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=233921"},"modified":"2019-10-08T21:14:09","modified_gmt":"2019-10-09T01:14:09","slug":"jet-for-duterte-senior-govt-officials-a-necessity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2019\/10\/08\/jet-for-duterte-senior-govt-officials-a-necessity\/","title":{"rendered":"Jet for Duterte, senior gov’t officials \u2018a necessity\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo denied that it was meant to serve comfort, saying it was necessary for times of crisis. (File Photo<\/a> Screengrab from Video: Office of the Presidential Spokesperson\/Facebook<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA<\/strong>\u00a0— Malaca\u00f1ang defended the contract signed by the Philippines to buy a luxury jet from the US for President Rodrigo Duterte and senior government officials to use in \u201ccrisis situations.\u201d<\/p>\n

Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo denied that it was meant to serve comfort, saying it was necessary for times of crisis.<\/p>\n

\u201cHindi naman<\/em>\u00a0comfort\u00a0iyon. Komportable ba iyon<\/em>? (It\u2019s not for comfort. Is it comfortable?)\u201d Panelo said in a Palace briefing on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn times of crisis,\u00a0eh ‘di\u00a0kailangan mo iyon. Kaya nga crisis e<\/em>h (If there are times of crisis then you need it. That\u2019s why it\u2019s a crisis) then there is necessity.\u00a0Kung<\/em>\u00a0necessity,\u00a0papano naman magwawaldas ka?<\/em>\u00a0(If it\u2019s a necessity, how could you not spend for it?),\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Panelo pointed out that Duterte, known as a frugal man, will not allow the government to spend for anything \u201cunless necessary.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gulfstream Aerospace Corporation recently announced on its website that the Philippine Air Force has signed a contract to buy a Gulfstream G280 aircraft for \u201ccommand and control\u201d duties.<\/p>\n

Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) Secretary-General Renato Reyes criticized the aircraft purchase questioning how the government could spend for comfort when commuters suffer from transport woes.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Panelo expressed hope that the aircraft purchase could be the start of \u201cfairer deals\u201d between the Philippines and the US.<\/p>\n

On Monday, Panelo said the US may feel \u201ca little insecure\u201d about its relationship with its only military ally due to deepening ties between the Philippines and Russia.<\/p>\n

Duterte\u2019s second visit to Russia last week secured PHP620 million worth of business deals.<\/p>\n

Panelo said partnerships with other countries, such as Russia, would likely prompt the US to give more importance to the Philippines including \u201cfair deals\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201c(US) should be more open into giving us fair deals. Like the complaint of the President, he wanted to buy arms from them and choppers, but they refused, because they placed condition, colatillas,\u201d Panelo said in an interview over a cable television program.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u00a0— Malaca\u00f1ang defended the contract signed by the Philippines to buy a luxury jet from the US for President Rodrigo …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":232618,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1145,16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-233921","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headline","category-news","category-news-ph","mauthors-azer-parrocha","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233921","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=233921"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233921\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":233923,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233921\/revisions\/233923"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/232618"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=233921"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=233921"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=233921"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}