Philippine troops trapped in Haiti buildings

Hundreds more Filipinos unaccounted for

MANILA, Philippines—(UPDATE 4) Some Filipino troops serving as members of the United Nations peacekeeping forces were trapped in several buildings in Haiti following the 7.0 magnitude quake that rocked its capital, according to the military officer who heads the Filipino peacekeeping contingent.

Lieutenant Colonel Romeo Brawner Jr., Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) spokesperson, relayed to reporters the information received by the wife of Lieutenant Colonel Lope Dagoy, head of the Filipino contingent to the UN peacekeeping force in Haiti, during their satellite phone conversation early Wednesday.

Brawner, however, said majority of the Philippine troops have been evacuated and are out of harm’s way.

Dagoy reached his wife through a satellite phone around 8:30 a.m. Wednesday (Manila time) or 9 p.m. (in Haiti), three hours after the strong earthquake rocked Port Au Prince, Brawner said.

The AFP spokesman said Dagoy could not yet say exactly how many Filipinos were trapped at the time of his conversation with his wife.

Brawner said Dagoy told his wife that power and communications bogged down following the quake.

Brawner said the military was still trying to establish full contact with the troops in the area, as of Wednesday morning, to account for all the 157 soldiers as well as 22 Philippine National Police officers who made up the Philippine peacekeeping contingent.

Meanwhile, Elmer Cato, spokesman for the Philippine mission to the United Nations, told reporters from New York that the Filipino peace keepers were already helping in rescue efforts.

"We were told by the UN they were first on scene of the collapsed UN headquarters," Cato said.

Cato said the Filipino peacekeepers were based in a building across the street from the headquarters of the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH), which was reduced to rubble.

The foreign ministry in Manila had said earlier it was concerned for the safety of its 179 military and police peacekeepers in Haiti after failing to reach them following the 7.0 magnitude quake in the impoverished Caribbean nation.

However, the foreign ministry said a number of nationals remained unaccounted for.

Eduardo Malaya, spokesperson of the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA), said in a text message to the Philippine Daily Inquirer on Wednesday that the Philippine Permanent Mission to the United Nations in New York and the Philippine embassy in Havanna, Cuba – which is handling the country’s diplomatic ties with Haiti – have had difficulty in establishing contact with the 10th Philippine Contingent serving with the INUSTAH.

“The DFA is deeply concerned over the condition of Filipinos in Haiti following the Magnitude 7 earthquake that struck Port-au-Prince on January 12,” Malaya said.

“The DFA will provide the public with updates as soon as reports are received from New York and the Philippine Embassy in Havanna, Cuba which covers Haiti,” he added.

Aside from the 179 peacekeepers, the DFA said there were "447 members of the Filipino community" in Haiti and that the Filipino mission to the UN in New York "has had difficulty in establishing contact" with the peacekeepers as well as the Filipino workers.

The UN confirmed in a statement that the MINUSTAH headquarters in Haiti sustained "serious damage" in Tuesday's earthquake and a large number of UN personnel in Haiti are unaccounted for.”

Alain Le Roy, head of the UN department of peacekeeping operations, which oversees the world body's various missions around the world, said other UN installations in the Caribbean nation were also seriously damaged.

Leroy added that a large number of UN personnel remain unaccounted for in Haiti.

"Contacts with the UN on the ground have been severely hampered as communications networks in Haiti have been disabled by the earthquake," Leroy said in a statement.

He said the UN Peacekeeping Department was still in the process of gathering information on the extent of the damage and the status of UN personnel, as of Wednesday morning (Manila time) following the "catastrophic earthquake."

The UN said that the building collapsed and that a large number of UN staff were unaccounted for.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in a statement, "My heart goes out to the people of Haiti after this devastating earthquake. At this time of tragedy, I am very concerned for the people of Haiti and also for the many United Nations staff who serve there. I am receiving initial reports and following developments closely."

The United Nations has a 9,000-strong peacekeeping force in Haiti, which has been there since a rebellion in 2004. The force has been credited with helping to curb violence and crime in the Western hemisphere. - By Jocelyn Uy, Cynthia Balana, Philippine Daily Inquirer, January 13, 2010