002 ~ Making History

Writing PNP international-peacekeeping history was done in both the factual and figure-of-speech contexts.

Factual, in that the past works of the overseas-bound PNP contingent were described as accurately as could be. Figure of speech, in that over the time spent in composing words to properly and most picturesquely paint the Filipino officers' experiences as UN Blue Berets, fresh ideas stemmed and were fleshed out.

On paper at least, the Philippine Formed Police Unit (FPU) was conceived, its existence and organization having been justified and encouraged by the executive branch of government. In August 2006, the National Police Commission (Napolcom) approved Napolcom Resolution Number 2006-247, entitled, "Approving the Creation of the PNP Formed Police Unit". (The Philippine FPU's birthing is deferred due to local-peacekeeping considerations, but should be expected in the coming months.)

More than on paper, one of the book's collaborators set the record for being the first Filipino to be named police commissioner of a UN peacekeeping mission, the biggest purely-civilian police mission at that. Within his first semester of leadership, strength of his command peaked to 1,661 UN Blue Berets, including elements from the Bangladeshi, Malaysian, Pakistani, and Portuguese FPUs. This number is five-and a-half times the size of MIPONUH, la Mission des police des Nations Unies en Haïti, one of the earlier sans-military missions.

Then came, in mid-May 2007, the UN Security Council announcement that the Philippines had become the world's most generous UN Police (UNPol) contributors, with her 288 simultaneously deployed personnel in Afghanistan, Côte d'Ivoire, Haïti, Kosovo, Liberia, the Sudan, and Timor-Leste. It was the honor borne by the tight coordination between the PNP and the Philippine Permanent Mission to the UN, smoothly and skillfully fostered through the seasons. It was the glory borne of a vision shared by predecessors, incumbents, and successors in both offices.

Point is, the consummated story of burning passions always has beginnings. These are sparked by men and women, the individuals, who rise and shine above the rest.

For whatever it's worth, a "World Records" sidebar graces the book's PART FOUR: THE BODY.

So, should one wish to find out who among the 1,075 featured Filipino UNPol (or CivPol, as some of them were called before the issuance of the 2004 UN memorandum that changed the name) bear the expertise, he or she can thumb through the look-see. There is a list of luminaries in the fields of intercontinental peacekeeping, gender-sensitive posting, contingent commandership, secondment service, and so forth.

Critics are free to dismiss the effort as "trivializing history". The passive can shrug it off as a mere recognition of personal accomplishments. Well, well, congratulations!

But the optimistic and the better-thinking will salvage the snippets of information, because they regard these as cores of future endeavors, the here-and-now starting points of tomorrow's successes.

One cannot stop them for believing that beneath a melding of contexts ---factual, figure of speech, and everything good in between--- lies something doable and tangible. And one can only wonder however in the world these few people can manage to make so many things possible and real, and to make quite a global difference.