RP task force to Iraq to get P10-M

President Arroyo has allocated P10 million as "seed fund" for the task force that would coordinate Philippine participation in Iraq’s reconstruction.

The special allocation is contained in Executive Order No. 194, which Mrs. Arroyo signed last Monday.

"The task force may also source additional funds from the private sector to support the implementation of the plans and programs as may be necessary," reads EO 194.

Mrs. Arroyo also signed Executive Order 195, creating the Philippine Humanitarian Task Force, which will spell out the country’s role in the reconstruction of the war-torn Middle East country.

The task force will be co-chaired by Foreign Affairs Secretary Blas Ople and Defense Secretary Angelo Reyes.

Presidential Spokesman Ignacio Bunye said yesterday Ambassador Roberto Romulo, chairman of the task force to coordinate the Philippine role in Iraq’s reconstruction, will fly to Washington this weekend to confer with retired Gen. Jay Garner, chief of the US Defense Department’s Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance.

"He will then fly to Kuwait as part of the expedited mission to coordinate the public-private partnership that is vitally needed, and (he) is expected to regularly report his progress to President Arroyo," he said.

A diplomatic source told The STAR yesterday the government has agreed to include troops in the Philippine humanitarian mission to Iraq in exchange for American defense assistance.

"Perhaps it is a quid pro quo," the source said. "We will get paid back in defense assistance. If you do not send military there, you do not get assistance in defense."

The source said officials of the Department of Foreign Affairs are dismayed over the $3 a day allowance for Filipino troops as the US government had agreed to pay the soldiers for only 30 days.

"The public should know what the soldiers are getting," the source said. "You are putting them in harm’s way. It is voluntary unlike East Timor, where somebody assumed the expenses. In the succeeding days, all expenses would be shouldered by the Philippine government, including the $3 (daily allowance of Filipinos soldiers)."

The source said the US should pay for the transportation, meals and accommodation of Filipino soldiers and their $3 allowance a day, not just for 30 days because their stay in Iraq has no definite period.

The sending of troops to Iraq as part of the Philippine humanitarian mission and the "measly" $3 daily allowance of the soldiers are provided in the two executive orders which Mrs. Arroyo signed last Monday, the source added. – Marichu Villanueva, Pia Lee-Brago