MikeLigalig.com

â€" Philippine Maj. Gen. Natalio Ecarma III, the incoming Head of Mission and Force Commander of the United Nations peacekeeping force in the Golan Heights, on Wednesday visited U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon at the latter’s U.N. headquarters in New York.

Ecarma begins his tour of duty as commander of the 1,043-strong United Nations Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF) on March 1, taking over from Maj. Gen. Wolfgang Jilke of Austria.

Last October, a 336-man Philippine infantry battalion of peacekeepers assumed their posts in the Golan Heights, a three-decades old disputed region in the Middle East situated between Israel and Syria.

The Philippines is one of six nations that have contributed military personnel to the UNDOF. The other countries are Austria, Canada, Croatia, India, Japan and Poland. (PNA)