RP contingent pulled out of Iraq if situation worsens

Philippine troops stationed in Iraq would be pulled out swiftly if the security situation threatened their safety, President Arroyo said yesterday.

"We shall closely monitor developments directly from the ground and we will ensure that our nationals will be kept out of harm’s way and will be immediately evacuated if called for by the shifting situation," Mrs. Arroyo said in a statement released by Malacañang yesterday.

"We are continually assessing the security conditions in Iraq to sharpen our options," she added.

The Philippines has deployed 178 soldiers, police and humanitarian workers to Iraq and pledged to the US-appointed Iraqi Governing Council last month to boost their number to 500 early next year.

But Mrs. Arroyo, the most vocal Southeast Asian ally of US President George W. Bush in his war on terror, said: "We have to balance our international commitments against the safety of our own peacekeepers and humanitarian workers."

The Filipinos are part of a US-led international force occupying Iraq since the ouster of Saddam Hussein in April.

Mrs. Arroyo’s statement yesterday was a departure from her official stand last month when she said the government would not recall its peacekeeping and humanitarian contingent in Iraq despite the series of suicide bombing attacks in Baghdad by suspected loyal supporters of Saddam who attacked the International Red Cross in Baghdad.

However, she instructed the Department of Foreign Affairs to ensure the Filipino peacekeepers are kept out of harm’s way in Baghdad.

So far, though, none of the Filipino peacekeepers in Iraq has been killed or injured in these attacks against coalition Armed Forces spokesman Lt. Col. Daniel Lucero said there has not been any order from Malacañang for the contingent to pull out.

He stressed none had been hurt in the escalating guerrilla campaign that has targeted US and other coalition forces as well as Iraqis working for the occupation forces.

"That’s a political decision, the Armed Forces of the Philippines will abide by any directive emanating (from) Malacañang relative to this Filipino commitment in the global fight against terrorism," Lucero told reporters.

"We are very much aware what our troops are fighting in Iraq and our troops are also very much aware that they did not go there for a party nor for a picnic," he added.

"We will not be cowed by these threats and even these reports that the Philippines might be one of the targets of this JI (Jemaah Islamiyah) or these al-Qaeda threats," Lucero said.

The military says the JI is the Southeast Asian proxy of al-Qaeda, the militant Islamic group blamed for the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks in the United States. — AFP, Marichu Villanueva