September 3,2008:
The Philippines recently lost one
of its two C-130 transports in an accident. They also have two F-27 Fokker
transports, but they are heavily used, and can only carry half as many troops
(the C-130 can carry 92 troops or 20 tons of cargo). With a sudden increase in
military operations in the Moslem south, sending new troops down there by ship
simply takes too long. So the Filipinos are doing what most other nations
(including the United States) end up doing, and chartering commercial aircraft
to move the troops.