AFP optimistic Filipino peacekeepers will be freed unharmed

MANILA, Philippines—The Philippine military on Wednesday expressed optimism that the abduction of four United Nations peacekeepers in Syria will be “resolved without any untoward incident,” just the same as the incident in March.

“We are very hopeful that that will happen, that will be resolved without any untoward incidents or any untoward harm to our soldiers,” Brigadier General Domingo Tutaan, spokesman of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, told reporters in a press briefing Wednesday.

He said the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force, which  the four are part of, is “on top of the situation” and is doing negotiations with the Syrian rebels who seized the four Filipinos in Golan Heights.

The abductors were allegedly from the same group that held 21 Filipino peacekeepers in captivity in March, but the soldiers were not part of the group abducted then.

The four peacekeepers from the Philippine battalion were on patrol when snatched by the rebels in Al Jamlah in Syria on Tuesday at 10 a.m. Syrian time, or 4p.m. Philippine time.

Tutaan said they “have not received reports that their condition is not good.”

The families of the four peacekeepers have been informed but the identities of the soldiers were withheld.

One officer was part of the four soldiers, Tutaan noted, however.

The spokesman also confirmed the authenticity of the circulating photo of the four soldiers on the Internet that were posted by the captors.

The four peacekeepers belong to the same Philippines contingent that were abducted in Syria last March.

The 6th Philippine contingent to Golan Heights is composed of 280 members of the Philippine Army and is due to return to the Philippines in August.