MANILA: The Philippine president says his country will lease five aircraft from Japan to help the local navy patrol Manila's territory in the disputed South China Sea.

President Benigno Aquino III said Wednesday that in addition to leasing the TC-90 training planes, the Philippines will also acquire a dozen military aircraft this year and in 2017 from other countries, including two more of a dozen FA-50 fighter jets from South Korea.

Aquino says the government has spent more than 58 billion pesos ($1.2 billion) from 2010, when his term started, to February this year to modernize the country's ill-equipped armed forces.

The Philippines has turned to the United States and other allies like Japan as it scrambled to strengthen its underfunded military amid escalating territorial disputes with China.