No apology for Philippines' pullout decision: spokesman

Philippine presidential spokesman Friday justified President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo's decision to pull out troops from Iraq to save a Filipino hostage as "the price to pay for being a Filipino and for leading the Filipino nation."

Spokesman Ignacio Bunye said in a statement that the president has stuck to her oath, taken responsibility, and has no apologies for her pullout decision.

"If this is the price to pay for being a Filipino and for leading the Filipino nation, so be it," he said.

US State Department spokesman Richard Boucher earlier said that the Philippines has been dropped from the US-led 33-member "coalition of the willing" as the United States and its allies adopted a common policy of an unequivocal rejection of terrorism and refusal to bow to any demands made by Iraqi abductors.

However, the Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) was told that the US State Department statement "refers only to states that continue to maintain troops in Iraq."

"The US Embassy has clarified that the answer was not intended to mean that the countries that supported the principles and objectives of the Coalition and (which) contribute to the rebuilding of Iraq but.. have no troops (there) are no longer considered part of the Coalition," the DFA said in a statement.

Bunye also noted, "There are other, perhaps even more meaningful, ways to sustain and strengthen our strategic relationship with the United States."

Foreign Affairs Undersecretary Franklin Ebdalin echoed Bunye, saying that the Philippines-US relations still remains good despite the dispute over the pullout.

Ebdalin said that it is normal for countries to clash occasionally over policy decisions since each country has different interests to uphold.

"We have to view that interest in the light of other interests. We try to balance the ball. The primary interest that the President took into consideration is the life of a Filipino," he said in Manila Overseas Press Club on Thursday.

"Our allies are important to us... (they) will have to understand that even as we hold them in the highest esteem, the protection of overseas Filipinos will have to come first," he stressed.