MANILA: The military is aware of the risk confronting Filipino forces deployed for peace keeping mission in the troubled Golan Heights, but it has no plan to withdraw, a senior official said yesterday.
“Golan Heights is a risky place as any other (areas where have peacekeepers), that’s why we are there to prevent conflict... There is the risk that we’ll be hurt because there is conflict there,” Armed Forces chief Gen Emmanuel Bautista said.
Bautista made the remarks a day after a Filipino peacekeeper was injured by a wayward indirect fire that landed at Camp Ziouni, about three to four kilometres away from where Syrian government and rebel forces are fighting. Asked if the military would pull out its forces in Golan Heights, Bautista said: “it’s a political, it’s a foreign relations issue and we submit to whatever the decision is to be. We just implement (orders).”
Told of Austria’s decision to pullout its peacekeepers from Golan Heights, Bautista said: “That’s a national decision of Austria.”
Austria’s decision leaves the Philippines and India as the only countries contributing peacekeepers to Golan Heights. Reports had it that Austria’s decision was reportedly due to lack of freedom and an unacceptable level of danger to its peacekeepers. The Philippine Star
