The Philippines' top diplomat today said that he has reversed an earlier recommendation and now wants Filipino peacekeepers to stay in the volatile Golan Heights for at least six months now that the United Nations has promised to bolster their safety.
Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario asked President Benigno Aquino III in May to withdraw the some 340 Filipino peacekeepers from Golan due to escalating hostilities between Syrian rebels and government troops in the UN patrolled buffer zone that separates Syria from the Israeli-occupied plateau.
His recommendation followed two separate abductions of Filipino peacekeepers and the wounding of another in fighting in recent months between Syrian government and rebel forces.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, US Secretary of State John Kerry and other governments then appealed to the Philippines to reconsider the planned withdrawal, warning of "maximum volatility" in the Golan region after a number of countries decided to withdraw their peacekeeping forces amid escalating violence, del Rosario said.
"We received many calls from the (UN) secretary-general and from various other countries that our leaving would probably create a situation where there will be maximum volatility and that would not be good," Del Rosario said.
He told a news conference that UN officials assured him in a recent meeting in New York that they would fulfil three conditions laid down by the Philippine government, including providing the peacekeepers with more self-defence weapons.
After UN officials agreed to those conditions and promised to improve the security of the peacekeepers, del Rosario said he asked President Benigno Aquino III to allow the Filipinos to stay in the Golan for at least six months beyond August 11, when they have to be replaced by a fresh batch.
Del Rosario said Aquino would likely approve the plan.
