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"The war is over in Iraq," Arroyo said on DWIZ radio here, one day after the US-led coalition took control of Baghdad.
"We will send a government team of 500 persons. It is our contribution to keep the peace in Iraq and rescue them from a humanitarian crisis," she said.
Manila dispatched an advance survey team to the US Central Command headquarters in Qatar on Sunday to coordinate the activities of the Filipino mission, Defense Secretary Angelo Reyes said.
"This 500-member team will essentially be a humanitarian mission. They could include doctors, nurses, engineers, as well as soldiers who would perform civic action and policemen who would perform peacekeeping (duties)," he said on GMA television here.
It would include a 300-member military component and about 100 policemen, with the balance humanitarian workers, the official said.
He said it was too early to say when the mission would leave and where in Iraq it would be deployed.
Reyes said rebuilding the Middle East nation could well be more difficult than the lightning-quick military campaign to depose Saddam Hussein.
"This is the most difficult portion because it (involves) work stabilizing the political situation, rehabilitation, and economic reconstruction of Iraq."
Arroyo said the 14 percentage-point drop in her popularity rating when she offered moral and political support to the campaign to disarm Baghdad of alleged weapons of mass destruction was well worth the effort.
"The jubilation of the Iraqi people is reminiscent of our own during EDSA 1 and 2. The sweetness of freedom is the same anywhere in the world," she said in a statement, referring to the bloodless popular revolts that toppled the Ferdinand Marcos regime in 1986 and the Joseph Estrada government in 2001.
"The triumph of democracy over despotism and terrorism anywhere in the world is a triumph for Filipinos," she said.
"We congratulate the Iraqi people for their victory and wish them a brighter future. We will help them keep the peace and rise from the humanitarian crisis."
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