Philippines acquires 2 FA-50 fighters from South Korea

I only hope that any Government there will be open for tourism and retirees, and that China never has an over baring interest in the Philippines militarily! Also can't imagine Americans going home
no matter any out-come of an election or vote.

 

Now that you mention the price it does seem a little much.
From the original article:

It seems odd for a third world country to pay a bit over $40M USD for each LIFT (lead-in fighter trainer) jet when a used F-16 will only run you around $15M USD.

And that price was back in 2012, probably a bit cheaper these days. I know they need a trainer to move up to the F-16 or equivalent but they could have purchased some used (and better) trainers that have already been in production for awhile at a fraction of the cost. The Hawk Mk127 could be an option which would run the Philippines around P14M new (lots of countries have these air craft and I'd think there would be quite a few of them available for purchase used). I really don't see the point in paying over $40M USD for a trainer that would essentially be seen as disposable in any type of real conflict....especially on the Philippines military budget.

As for who paid for it......$401M USD seems like huge percentage of the $3,000,000,000 USD they spent on their entire military in 2015 (which is 13% of their total military expenditures). I'd guess that another country (probably the US) had made a "donation" to their defense budget to purchase the air craft.....and I would guess that it was done to make a little poke at the Chinese.