RP contingent may be pulled out of Iraq after June 30

The Philippines may pull its 51-member humanitarian contingent out of Iraq when the United States hands power to an interim government on June 30, Defense Secretary Eduardo Ermita said yesterday.

Ermita said a high-level Cabinet oversight committee and the Department of Foreign Affairs would meet to hammer out a recommendation to President Arroyo, who was among the first Asian leaders to back the US-led invasion of Iraq last year.

"I suppose we may have to pull them out," Ermita told reporters, adding that the Iraqi interim government would also have to decide "whether they would need foreigners in their land."

"The very purpose why they (Filipino troops) are there (was a) response to the UN resolution for other countries to help in extending humanitarian assistance to the people in Iraq," Ermita stressed.

He said the Philippines was not planning to boost the 51-man humanitarian contingent composed of policemen and soldiers serving with US-led forces in the face of rising attacks against foreigners there.

The RP contingent, integrated into a multinational division of peacekeepers under the overall command of the Polish military, is stationed at Camp Charlie in Al-Hillah City in Babil province since it arrived there last August. The troops are under the command of Brig. Gen. Jovito Palparan.

At least 45 other soldiers and policemen are on stand-by, waiting for their deployment to Iraq.

Manila’s special envoy to the Middle East, Roy Cimatu, has reported that Filipino troops in Iraq have been advised to stay in their camps.

Three Filipino soldiers traveling in a convoy with US forces were wounded in an ambush by Iraqi militants south of Baghdad last week. — AFP, Jaime Laude