Possible 'massacre' prompted Filipino troops' Golan escape
MANILA, Philippines — The Filipino peacekeepers were low on ammunition and expecting another attack by Syrian rebels by dawn. This was when they decided a narrow escape from their position at Golan Heights.
Armed Forces chief of staff Gen. Gregorio Pio Catapang said Tuesday in a state report that Filipino troops besieged at Position 68 endured seven hours in a firefight that nearly depleted their supplies.
The exchange came after Syrian-initiated negotiations, demanding that the Filipinos surrender their firearms.
"We told them, [if] you want the firearms, you [should] ask the Fijians to give another 44 firearms," the peacekeepers said, as quoted by Catapang.
The rebels earlier attacked Fijian peacekeepers, who were then taken hostage after their weapons were surrendered. The Filipino troops, on the other hand, refused to give in to demands of the al-Qaeda-linked rebels.
Map showing the deployment and positions of international peacekeepers in Golan Heights amid the Syrian crisis. UNDOF
At one point, the rebels grew impatient and held the hours-long attack concluded only when the rebels got "tired" and launched another round of negotiations, the peacekeepers said.
The Filipinos, however, observed the enemies to be regrouping and calling for reinforcements Sunday night while the talks were ongoing. They knew a bigger attack would be launched in the morning.
A next attack would "be the end of it," the military chief said.
"We [would] be massacred, as the good [Defense] Secretary Voltaire Gazmin stated. Because we didn't want the people to know, we had a news blackout, [and the troops] were low in ammunition," Catapang added.
They only had two options: Risk a narrow escape or heed the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force commander Maj. Gen. Iqbal Singha's order to surrender their arms to the rebels.
"So we had to make the greatest escape for the soldiers," Catapang said.
"And with God's grace, the area was not foggy. [The troops] were able to run in the middle of the night when the rebels were sleeping," he said.
The route, however, was studded with land mines, but the peacekeepers' leader, Capt. Nilo Ramones, managed to bring them to safety.
The 35 from Position 69 were extricated by Irish military personnel, but the 40 troops from Position 68 had to defy the UNDOF commander's orders.
The 40 Filipino peacekeepers tried to inform Singha of their escape plan, but the latter informed UNDOF chief of staff Col. Ezra James Enriquez, a Filipino, that he did not want to hear about the escape.
"Gen. Singha ordered no military operations. So, it's still to be investigated, why the order of Gen. Singha was, there will be no reinforcement. Because he was already there, we were monitoring him. And then all of a sudden, he changed his mind," Catapang said.
On Tuesday, the Philippine military announced Enriquez's resignation from the United Nations post over disagreements with his superior. - Camille Diola
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