Government may send smaller team to Iraq

The government may reduce the number of peacekeepers in the humanitarian mission to Iraq following a budget shortfall, Defense Secretary Angelo Reyes said yesterday.

Reyes said he is in favor of deploying a smaller, but well-supported peacekeeping force.

"It is better that we reduce the number and support them well, rather than send a big number that cannot be supported… We do not want our contingent to be left out," he said.

The P627-million budget, which will be shouldered by the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and other government agencies, is not enough to support the contingent, Reyes said.

"The 500 (members of the humanitarian mission) is not yet final. The P627-million budget is not yet fixed," he said in a statement.

Reyes said he and Foreign Affairs Secretary Blas Ople, with whom he co-chairs the humanitarian mission, are still "working out the figures."

He earlier said the P627 million needed for the six-month stay of the 500-man Philippine mission was just an initial estimate, and can still be reduced with the deployment of fewer peacekeeping personnel.

As outlined by the government, the 500-man contingent is composed of 300 personnel from AFP, 100 from the PNP, 60 from the DOH, 39 from the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) and one from the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA).

Reyes said the bulk of the AFP contingent may consist of medical staff.

The AFP is banking on the support of lawmakers for other sources of funds.

"As of now, the DFA continues to convince lawmakers to shell out money to finance the humanitarian mission, which it insisted was the Philippines’ obligation as a member of the ‘coalition of the willing,’" Reyes said.

He earlier said the funding problems may cause a short delay before the Philippines could send the full 500-man contingent. Moreover, the Philippine government has to first forge a status of forces agreement (SOFA) with Kuwait and Qatar.

The first nine members of the Philippine team will fly on May 15 to Qatar, then to Kuwait. From Kuwait, the mission will proceed to Iraq.

Reyes also asserted that Filipinos are not going to Iraq uninvited.

The Philippine government, he said, has been verbally requested by the United States Central Command "to frontload" or give priority to the humanitarian mission to respond to the needs of the war-stricken Iraqi people.

He said the decision of Mrs. Arroyo to send a 500-man Filipino humanitarian and peacekeeping team to Iraq was based on the Geneva Convention of 1949 and United Nations Security Council Resolution 1472.

The Geneva Convention of 1949 called on the international community to assist victims of occupied territories, and the UNSC Resolution 1472 called on members of the UN to assist the Iraqis.

"Our Constitution says we accept and adopt general principles of international laws as laws of the land," Reyes explained further.

Reyes sneered at criticisms that the Filipino forces were not invited by the Iraqi government and its people to their country.

"But there’s no Iraqi government to speak of. Saddam Hussein has already been ousted from power," he said, adding that there is only a de facto administration being run by the "coalition of the willing" headed by retired Lt. Gen. Jay Garner, the designated representative of the US Defense Department Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Affairs (ORHA).

According to Reyes, a three-member team composed of Col. Antonio Villarete from the Armed Forces of the Philippines, Superintendent Samuel Pagdilao from the Philippine National Police and Dr. Evangeline Cruzado of the Department of Health has been coordinating the deployment of the Philippine mission to Iraq with the ORHA.