MANILA, Philippines - In an effort to raise more revenues to plug the Philippines' ballooning budget deficit, the government has decided to sell a bigger stake in oil and gas company Philippine National Oil Co.-Exploration Corp. (PNOC-EC).

The government has now decided to sell 60% of PNOC-EC, higher than the initially-planned 40%, according to Finance Secretary Margarito Teves. He said the government stands to earn as much as P15 billion from the sale, which is expected to happen in the first quarter of next year.

"We will try to increase the amount of shares we will dispose of. We will go for a strategic sale of 60% instead of 40%. We hope we can get a better response," Teves said.

Analysts said that the government can raise as much as P30 billion from the sale of its stake in PNOC-EC if market conditions are ripe. PNOC-EC is the oil and gas unit of state-owned PNOC.

The government had initially planned to sell PNOC-EC in November last year, but officials said they are waiting for better market conditions and for some administrative issues to be ironed out.

Aside from PNOC-EC, the government is also planning to sell the 103-hectare Food Terminal Inc. (FTI) property in Taguig in 2010 after failing to bid it out this year. It is also leasing out its real estate property in Fujimi, Japan for around P3 billion.

With the adjustments in schedule, the government is now eyeing as much as P30 billion from the privatization of state-owned assets next year, higher than the initial target of P12.5 billion.

This year, the government has so far raised only P1.1 billion from asset sales.