Agence France Presse  --  Arab News

MANILA, 13 April 2004 — A small contingent of Filipino troops serving with the US-led occupation forces in Iraq would stay put until a further assessment of the violence on the ground is carried out, a spokesman for President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo said yesterday.

Cabinet Secretary Ricardo Saludo said government was “monitoring the situation” and hopes that the violence would be quelled in Iraq.

“We have standing measures to assist our nationals there and this would include repatriation if necessary,” Saludo told reporters.

The government is awaiting proposals and suggestions from Filipino officials on the ground in Iraq, but “our mission there is to continue to assist the Iraqi people,” Saludo said.

Asked if the Philippines would pull out troops in the wake of violence in Iraq targeting foreign nationals serving with US forces, Saludo said: “We shall have to defer that decision until we have made our assessment of our role there and also of the safety of our nationals.”

China yesterday confirmed that seven of its citizens have been kidnapped in Iraq, adding to the three Japanese held by an armed group. An American, who identified himself as Thomas Hamill on television, is also being held by an unknown armed group calling itself the “Mujahedeen of Iraq to US forces” which is demanding the US military lift its siege of Fallujah. A Canadian of Syrian origin, was also seized around midnight Thursday by members of a local militia in Kufa.

Armed forces deputy chief of staff Lt. Gen. Rodolfo Garcia said he would be flying to check on the 49-man Filipino contingent serving with Polish troops in south-central Iraq.

“They have been fighting in the Polish sector, that’s about 20 kilometers away from Al Hila where our troops are,” Garcia said.

“But despite this tension in Iraq, our troops are okay. They have been doing their humanitarian work in Iraq and have received praises from the people.”