President Benigno Aquino III has tasked the Armed Forces of the Philippines to review sending Filipino soldiers abroad as peacekeepers.
Twenty-one Filipino peacekeepers were abducted in Golan Heights, Syria this week and the United Nations is already in negotiations for their release.
Sun Star Online reports, however, that the President had ordered the review even before the incident.
“Can we afford this number of people? I am told the number is about a thousand for all of the deployments everywhere when we also have our needs here in the country. So, I’m still awaiting the results of that study,” Aquino said while in Davao City.
He said the number of police officers and soldiers in the country has remained the same despite a growing population.
The Philippines has sent peacekeepers to the Haiti, East Timor, Cambodia and Golan Heights.
