The commander of Filipino peacekeepers in Iraq returned home yesterday ahead of his troops after the Philippines decided to withdraw them -- despite the US-led coalition's fierce opposition -- to meet a demand by Iraqi insurgents threatening to behead a Filipino hostage.
The kidnappers holding truck driver Angelo de la Cruz, 46, have said they would release him if all Philippine peacekeepers are withdrawn before the end of the month.
Arriving at Manila's airport early yesterday, army Brigadier General Jovito Palparan Jr. told reporters he was happy to be back.
PHOTO: REUTERS
"The men I left there are OK, they are preparing to return home," he said.
Palparan later met Foreign Secretary Delia Albert and military chief Narciso Abaya to report details of the withdrawal that was to be completed later yesterday, Albert said in a nationally televised statement.
Some of the 51 Filipino peacekeepers left for Kuwait last week. The rest were to depart on a commercial flight to Manila after an "exit call" yesterday on the new Polish commander at Camp Charlie in Iraq's Babil province, Albert said.
A prominent pressure group for overseas workers, Migrante, welcomed the withdrawal, but also urged Philippine President Gloria Arroyo to withdraw all support for the US-led force, fearing that 4,000 Filipino contract workers in Iraq and more than 1.4 million others in the Middle East could be in danger.
Relatives of de la Cruz in the northern province of Pampanga were overjoyed and prayed after hearing of plans to complete the withdrawal. They urged the kidnappers to free him.
"I'm happy that the troops are on their way back," said Feliciano de la Cruz Jr., the hostage's younger brother. "I hope my brother follows them home."
In the first sign of possible fallout from Arroyo's decision to withdraw troops from Iraq, a US official said on Sunday that Washington was re-evaluating ties.
The official did not specifically say Washington could scale down military or economic assistance to Manila. Last week, US officials said they remain committed to training and advising Filipino troops at Manila's request.
Troubled by communist insurgents and Muslim extremist terror threats, the Philippines has relied on Washington to provide training and weapons to its poorly armed military to battle al-Qaeda-linked groups in the restive south.
Still reeling from a narrow victory in the May 10 presidential elections, Arroyo has gambled cozy links with Washington to defuse a potentially explosive political situation had she refused to recall the troops from Iraq and were de la Cruz -- who has developed into a national icon -- beheaded, analysts said.
COMPLAINTS
Meanwhile, activists vowed yesterday to pursue murder complaints against Palparan in connection with killings of human-rights workers on an island in the Philippines where he served as army brigade commander.
Militant groups also said they will push the Justice Department to hasten prosecution of murder cases they filed against him for killings during his alleged "reign of terror" on Mindoro island. They claim he may have ordered the killings and other abuses.
Representative Teddy Casino, secretary-general of leftist group Bayan Muna, said the three pending cases against Palparan include the 2002 killing of Choi Napoles, a coordinator of Bayan in Mindoro, and the killings last year of human-rights leader Eden Marcellana and peasant leader Eddie Gumanoy.
"All in all, 18 Bayan Muna supporters and members were killed in Mindoro, but we were able to gather enough evidence and testimonies only on three cases," Casino said.
In most cases, he said, witnesses refused to testify out of fear, or evidence was insufficient to stand up in court.
Marie Hilao-Enriquez, head of the human-rights group Karapatan, said her group has documented hundreds of human-rights cases in Mindoro, ranging from harassment and disappearances to illegal arrests and murder during Palparan's two years there.
PRECARIOUS RELATIONS: Commentators in Saudi Arabia accuse the UAE of growing too bold, backing forces at odds with Saudi interests in various conflicts A Saudi Arabian media campaign targeting the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has deepened the Gulf’s worst row in years, stoking fears of a damaging fall-out in the financial heart of the Middle East. Fiery accusations of rights abuses and betrayal have circulated for weeks in state-run and social media after a brief conflict in Yemen, where Saudi airstrikes quelled an offensive by UAE-backed separatists. The United Arab Emirates is “investing in chaos and supporting secessionists” from Libya to Yemen and the Horn of Africa, Saudi Arabia’s al-Ekhbariya TV charged in a report this week. Such invective has been unheard of
‘TERRORIST ATTACK’: The convoy of Brigadier General Hamdi Shukri resulted in the ‘martyrdom of five of our armed forces,’ the Presidential Leadership Council said A blast targeting the convoy of a Saudi Arabian-backed armed group killed five in Yemen’s southern city of Aden and injured the commander of the government-allied unit, officials said on Wednesday. “The treacherous terrorist attack targeting the convoy of Brigadier General Hamdi Shukri, commander of the Second Giants Brigade, resulted in the martyrdom of five of our armed forces heroes and the injury of three others,” Yemen’s Saudi Arabia-backed Presidential Leadership Council said in a statement published by Yemeni news agency Saba. A security source told reporters that a car bomb on the side of the road in the Ja’awla area in
US President Donald Trump on Saturday warned Canada that if it concludes a trade deal with China, he would impose a 100 percent tariff on all goods coming over the border. Relations between the US and its northern neighbor have been rocky since Trump returned to the White House a year ago, with spats over trade and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney decrying a “rupture” in the US-led global order. During a visit to Beijing earlier this month, Carney hailed a “new strategic partnership” with China that resulted in a “preliminary, but landmark trade agreement” to reduce tariffs — but
SCAM CLAMPDOWN: About 130 South Korean scam suspects have been sent home since October last year, and 60 more are still waiting for repatriation Dozens of South Koreans allegedly involved in online scams in Cambodia were yesterday returned to South Korea to face investigations in what was the largest group repatriation of Korean criminal suspects from abroad. The 73 South Korean suspects allegedly scammed fellow Koreans out of 48.6 billion won (US$33 million), South Korea said. Upon arrival in South Korea’s Incheon International Airport aboard a chartered plane, the suspects — 65 men and eight women — were sent to police stations. Local TV footage showed the suspects, in handcuffs and wearing masks, being escorted by police officers and boarding buses. They were among about 260 South
RSS