RP to send 155 troops to earthquake-ravaged Haiti

The Philippines will send this week another batch of peacekeepers to earthquake-ravaged Haiti, a military spokesman said on Sunday. Armed Forces public affairs office chief Lt. Col. Romeo Brawner Jr. said the 155-member team is just waiting for the green light from the United Nations, which is sanctioning the deployment of a multi-national peacekeeping force in the troubled Caribbean country. “Probably by next week, this contingent is ready to leave. However, we will wait for the approval of the United Nations because they are shouldering the transportation and allowance of this contingent," he said. President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo had ordered the Armed Forces to prepare more peacekeepers to Haiti in response to an appeal from the UN. The team will be tasked to help in the ongoing search, rescue and retrieval operations for the earthquake victims as well as in future rehabilitation efforts.

Trained Brawner said the military has been training 155 Haiti-bound peacekeepers in Camp O’Donnel in Capas, Tarlac, for some time to replace the current contingent there. The current batch will complete its six-month tour of duty next month. It was not immediately clear if the Philippine peacekeeping force, headed by Lt. Col. Lope Dagoy, would be recalled next month as scheduled given the disaster that hit Haiti. Brawner said they expect that the visas, passports, other pertinent documents and requirements like vaccinations of the soldiers would be completed this week. As of posting time, six Filipinos – three soldiers, a civilian UN staff, and two supermarket workers – are still trapped inside fallen buildings in Haiti. Brawner said the three soldiers - Petty Officer 3 Pearly Panangui, Sergeant Janice Arocena and Sergeant Eustacio Bermudez - are trapped at the collapsed Christopher Hotel building, which serves as the UN headquarters in Haiti. The three soldiers are working as clerks in the building. “Our massive retrieval and rescue operations are still ongoing…We are still searching for the three peacekeepers, a United Nations worker or staff and two Filipina working at the Carribean supermarket," he said. Efforts, meanwhile, are being exerted to rescue of Grace Fabian and Geraldine Lalican, who remained trapped under the ruins of the Carribean Supermarket area in Port-au-Prince, Haiti's capital. The missing Filipino UN civilian staff member has been identified as Jerome Yap.- KBK, GMANews.TV