DFA awaiting UN request to send troops to Lebanon

The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) is waiting for a formal request from the United Nations for peacekeeping troops in Lebanon to help enforce a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah militants.

But according to a DFA official, Manila will only deploy a humanitarian contingent, not combatants.

The UN is putting together a 15,000-strong multinational force of peacekeepers that, along with Lebanese troops, will act as a buffer between Israel and Hezbollah fighters.

However, Jesus Domingo, director of the DFA’s United Nations and International Organizations division, said the Philippines will not send combatants.

"Our participation would be limited to the humanitarian aspect. Meaning, our troops will only engage in medical, engineering and administrative roles and not in security," Domingo said.

The government is also considering sending civilian doctors, nurses and social workers aside from peacekeepers, he added.

He said Armed Forces of the Philippines reservists might be mobilized if there is a shortage of military personnel to be deployed in Lebanon.

If that pushes through, this will be the first time that the military is sending reservists for international peacekeeping operations, Domingo said.

"The AFP said they are interested, but it is hard because they also have to take care of internal security here," he said, referring to the communist insurgency and the threat of terrorism.

Domingo added that chances are big that a Philippine peacekeeping force will be sent to Lebanon because the DFA has already asked the military and the Philippine National Police to prepare for possible deployment.

"We are 70 to 80 percent sure of sending a peacekeeping force," he said.

The government is tapping non-government organizations as well the Department of Health and the Department of Social Welfare and Development to participate. "We are trying to see if they could play a role," Domingo said.

He explained that the Philippine civilian contingent will be given duties for personnel under the "white helmets" or non-combatant category if the government’s plan to deploy them materializes.

DFA records showed that the Philippines is the 26th largest troop contributor to UN peacekeeping operations. About 600 Filipino peacekeepers are deployed in Haiti, Burundi, Ivory Coast, Afghanistan, Kosovo, Liberia, Sudan and East Timor.

Domingo did not explain why the Philippine peacekeeping troop contingent would be limited to a humanitarian role.

Speaker Jose de Venecia Jr. had earlier suggested that the Philippines contribute troops to a UN-led multinational peacekeeping force in Lebanon but initially got a lukewarm response.

Government officials then said it was too early to decide whether or not to send troops, saying the UN would have to issue a resolution calling for a peacekeeping force.

Armed Forces chief of staff Lt. Gen. Hermogenes Esperon earlier said the military did not have funding and resources set aside for peacekeeping duties in Lebanon. "That is possible but we need to prepare for it. It costs money to send our troops," he said.

The military is currently intensifying operations against the New People’s Army (NPA), which has been fighting one of the world’s longest communist insurgencies.

In June, President Arroyo ordered the military and the police to finally decimate the NPA’s presence in Luzon in two years and pledged to provide P1 billion in funding to do the job.

Troops are also currently battling the al-Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf in Sulu, where two Jemaah Islamiyah figures wanted for the 2002 Bali bombings in Indonesia are believed hiding. Over a hundred people, mostly Australians, were killed in the blasts.

Former Senate president Franklin Drilon was cool to De Venecia’s suggestion, saying the Philippines might only be again embarrassed if it would be forced later to make an early troop pullout.

In 2004, Mrs. Arroyo incurred the ire of the United States and other allies for caving in to Iraqi militants who threatened to kill truck driver Angelo de la Cruz if the Philippines did not pull out its troops from Iraq.

"This might be another occasion that we will have a black eye," Drilon said. "We don’t repeat the experience anymore."

Since then the Arroyo administration has been assuring Washington that it was serious in helping the US-led global campaign on terrorism.

A US official, who was in Manila just as the conflict in Lebanon was beginning to escalate with Israel massing troops at the border, said countries that were considering sending peacekeepers "need to assess their abilities to send forces there."

"You know, I really don’t want to give advice to the Philippines on the issue of sending troops," US Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill said when asked by Filipino reporters to comment on De Venecia’s suggestion.

"I mean obviously the force that needs to be sent there needs to be a strong force," he told a press briefing after meeting with Mrs. Arroyo at Malacañang. — With Rainier Allan Ronda