President Rodrigo Duterte wants to save money and will take an 8-seater plane to Singapore instead of the Philippine Airlines Charter Flight PR001 as he attends the 32nd Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) this April.
Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said the decision to use an 8-seater plane would mean “lesser cost for the taxpayer.”
“To save money! It’s expensive to charter a plane. And a leaner delegation will mean lesser cost for the taxpayer,” Roque said in a Palace briefing on Monday.
“The private plane is an 8-seater plane, so it’s a very small plane,” he added.
The Palace official said the private plane would carry the President, Special Assistant to the President Christopher “Bong” Go, and some staff.
“It’s a very small team that will fly with him and it’s a lot cheaper compared to chartering a whole, an entire Philippine Airlines plane,” he said.
President Duterte would attend the regional summit in Singapore on April 27 to 28.
An Inquirer report had earlier shown that Duterte was the most-traveled President in his first year in office, having made 19 foreign trips. /je
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