diff --git a/packages/php/build.sh b/packages/php/build.sh
index d69f3482f..70aeca82a 100644
--- a/packages/php/build.sh
+++ b/packages/php/build.sh
@@ -1,20 +1,26 @@
 TERMUX_PKG_HOMEPAGE=http://php.net/
 TERMUX_PKG_DESCRIPTION="Server-side, HTML-embedded scripting language"
-TERMUX_PKG_VERSION=5.6.15
-TERMUX_PKG_BUILD_REVISION=1
+TERMUX_PKG_VERSION=5.6.16
 TERMUX_PKG_SRCURL=http://php.net/get/php-${TERMUX_PKG_VERSION}.tar.xz/from/this/mirror
+TERMUX_PKG_NO_SRC_CACHE=yes
+# Build native php for phar to build (see pear-Makefile.frag.patch):
+TERMUX_PKG_HOSTBUILD=true
 TERMUX_PKG_FOLDERNAME=php-${TERMUX_PKG_VERSION}
-TERMUX_PKG_DEPENDS="libxml2, liblzma"
+TERMUX_PKG_DEPENDS="libxml2, liblzma, openssl, pcre"
 TERMUX_PKG_EXTRA_CONFIGURE_ARGS="--without-iconv"
 # http://php.net/manual/en/libxml.installation.php
 # "If configure cannot find xml2-config in the directory specified by --with-libxml-dir,
 # then it'll continue on and check the default locations."
 TERMUX_PKG_EXTRA_CONFIGURE_ARGS+=" --with-libxml-dir=$TERMUX_PREFIX"
-TERMUX_PKG_EXTRA_CONFIGURE_ARGS+=" --disable-phar"
+TERMUX_PKG_EXTRA_CONFIGURE_ARGS+=" --with-openssl=$TERMUX_PREFIX"
+# http://php.net/manual/en/pcre.installation.php: pcre always enabled, use platform library:
+TERMUX_PKG_EXTRA_CONFIGURE_ARGS+="  --with-pcre-regex=$TERMUX_PREFIX"
 TERMUX_PKG_EXTRA_CONFIGURE_ARGS+=" ac_cv_func_res_nsearch=no"
 TERMUX_PKG_EXTRA_CONFIGURE_ARGS+=" --mandir=$TERMUX_PREFIX/share/man"
 
 termux_step_pre_configure () {
+	export NATIVE_PHP_EXECUTABLE=$TERMUX_PKG_HOSTBUILD_DIR/sapi/cli/php
+
 	# Run autoconf since we have patched config.m4 files.
 	cd $TERMUX_PKG_SRCDIR
 	autoconf
diff --git a/packages/php/ext-phar-Makefile.frag.patch b/packages/php/ext-phar-Makefile.frag.patch
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..f2eba6ac3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/packages/php/ext-phar-Makefile.frag.patch
@@ -0,0 +1,25 @@
+diff -u -r ../php-5.6.16/ext/phar/Makefile.frag ./ext/phar/Makefile.frag
+--- ../php-5.6.16/ext/phar/Makefile.frag	2015-11-25 15:28:38.000000000 -0500
++++ ./ext/phar/Makefile.frag	2015-12-22 05:31:09.794496317 -0500
+@@ -4,20 +4,7 @@
+ pharcmd: $(builddir)/phar.php $(builddir)/phar.phar
+ 
+ PHP_PHARCMD_SETTINGS = -d 'open_basedir=' -d 'output_buffering=0' -d 'memory_limit=-1' -d phar.readonly=0 -d 'safe_mode=0'
+-PHP_PHARCMD_EXECUTABLE = ` \
+-	if test -x "$(top_builddir)/$(SAPI_CLI_PATH)"; then \
+-		$(top_srcdir)/build/shtool echo -n -- "$(top_builddir)/$(SAPI_CLI_PATH) -n"; \
+-		if test "x$(PHP_MODULES)" != "x"; then \
+-		$(top_srcdir)/build/shtool echo -n -- " -d extension_dir=$(top_builddir)/modules"; \
+-		for i in bz2 zlib phar; do \
+-			if test -f "$(top_builddir)/modules/$$i.la"; then \
+-				. $(top_builddir)/modules/$$i.la; $(top_srcdir)/build/shtool echo -n -- " -d extension=$$dlname"; \
+-			fi; \
+-		done; \
+-		fi; \
+-	else \
+-		$(top_srcdir)/build/shtool echo -n -- "$(PHP_EXECUTABLE)"; \
+-	fi;`
++PHP_PHARCMD_EXECUTABLE = $(NATIVE_PHP_EXECUTABLE)
+ PHP_PHARCMD_BANG = `$(top_srcdir)/build/shtool echo -n -- "$(INSTALL_ROOT)$(bindir)/$(program_prefix)php$(program_suffix)$(EXEEXT)";`
+ 
+ $(builddir)/phar/phar.inc: $(srcdir)/phar/phar.inc