Armed Forces of the Philippines Chief of Staff General Gregorio Pio Catapang Jr. has refused to rise to the bait after the commander of the United Nations peacekeeping force in the Golan Heights called the escape of Filipino troops from encirclement by Syrian rebels an "act of cowardice."
AFP public affairs chief Lt. Col. Ramon Zagala ripped into Indian Lt. Gen. Iqbal Singh Singha, saying it was the UNDOF chief who showed cowardice by "ordering the (Filipino) troops, endangering them unnecessarily by surrendering (their) firearms and raising the white flag instead of repositioning them. I think that's the act of cowardice."
A report on the website of India Today quoted Singha as saying, "It is an act of cowardice to desert posts especially when a delicate ceasefire was in place," referring to 40 Filipino peacekeepers who broke out of the Syrian rebel encirclement after coming under fire for seven hours.
Catapang and other Philippine defense officials earlier claimed Singha ordered the Filipino peacekeepers to surrender to prevent possible harm to 44 Fijian soldiers captured previously by the Syrian rebels.
But the UN Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping, Herve Ladsous, backed Singha and denied the Indian general had ordered the Filipinos to surrender their weapons.
Singha told India Today that, "The non-professional actions of the Filipino troops have endangered the lives of the Fijian soldiers. They have defied orders at a time when we had negotiated a ceasefire with the rebels to ensure that all troops in the conflict area could exit."
"They broke the chain of command and UN orders," he added.
Following Singha’s statement, Catapang said in a text message: "We (AFP) decided that we should just keep our silence ... about the incident. We have asked DFA to reply to all queries about this unfortunate incident. We will just submit all the reports as directed by the President. After saving our troops from being massacred, the last thing we want to do is to be involved in a blame game ..."
Before this, however, Zagala, in an interview, justified the breakout of the Filipino peacekeepers, saying that, while their mission was to "keep the peace" and act as a buffer between Israel and Syria, "what is part of our mandate ... both the United Nations and the Armed Forces of the Philippines ... is ... ability to defend ourselves, and what we did there is we defended ourselves from attack after a seven-hour firefight with Syrian rebels."
He added, "General Singha, instead of bringing his men to safety, even allowed us to continue (the) seven-hour firefight when he could have repositioned us earlier together with (another Filipino-held outpost) Position 69, but he did not. He left us there, our ammunition (was) low and he told us if we are attacked again for us to lay down our arms and raise the white flag."
"Now which one is cowardice, his orders or (our) doing what is the best option to save Filipino soldiers' lives?" Zagala asked.
http://www.interaksyon.com/article/94727/great-escape--afp-chief-mum-after-undof-chiefs-act-of-cowardice-jibe
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