The 30th of November is designated as the Filipino people’s day for honoring compatriot Andres Bonifacio, the bolo-brandishing hero of yore, who put life and limb on the line to the cause of Motherland’s independence, sovereignty, sobriety, and preservation.
There should also be a 24-hour nationwide observance of the Philippines' standard bearers who fleshed out Motherland’s contributions to international peace and regional stability, they who would attack the problem wielding nothing but the proverbial peace pipe, and a non-hostile solution.
There’s the register that contains the names of more than a thousand PNP international contingent-members who have endured some of the world’s worst crises with maximum tolerance. [Please refer to the Contingent Roll in the main website.]
Here’s an enumeration of the host areas attended by the PNP Contingent:
CAMBODIA (1992-93)
- UNTAC, the UN Transitional Authority in Cambodia
HAÏTI (1994-95; 2004-present)
- Operation Uphold Democracy in Haïti
- UNMIH, the UN Mission in Haïti
- MINUSTAH, la Mission des Nations Unies pour la stabilisation en Haïti
TIMOR-LESTE (1999-present)
- UNAMET, the UN Mission in East Timor
- UNTAET, the UN Transitional Administration in East Timor
- UNMISET, the UN Mission of Support in Timor-Leste
- UNOTIL, the UN Office in Timor-Leste
- UNMIT*, the UN Integrated Mission in Timor-Leste
KOSOVO (1999-present)
- UNMIK, the UN Interim Administration in Kosovo
IRAQ (2003-04)
- PHCI, the Philippine Humanitarian Contingent to Iraq
LIBERIA (2004-present)
- UNMIL, the UN Mission in Liberia
AFGHANISTAN (2004-present)
- UNAMA, the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan
SUDAN (2005-present)
- UNMIS, the UN Mission in Sudan
CÔTE D’IVOIRE (2005-present)
- ONUCI, l’Opération des Nations Unies en Côte d’Ivoire
NEPAL (2007)
- UNMIN, the UN Mission in Nepal
Since 3 April 1992, the PNP Contingent has committed over three million (wo)man-hours to global peacekeeping and humanitarian purposes. From a statistical point of view, the energy spent could have covered at least three-and-a-half years’ worth of round-the-clock, all-out “felt police presence” in all seventeen cities and municipalities within the National Capital Region, and in all 78 provinces spread over the sixteen other regions, simultaneously.
But as government and people say, there is the time to attend to the needy beyond one’s own borders.
There’s a time for giving as much as for taking. The sacrifice and selflessness and all sorts of good graces shared with external populations always have a way of coming around.
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*This very day, several PNP officers mark the end of their extended service with UNMIT. Like the thousandsomething before them scattered in the overseas beats, these Filipino policemen and -women received their UN Service Medals and individualized recognition certificates from their superiors, most of whom were vocal about not being able to capture the mission’s ideals without the trademark efficiency of members of the PNP Contingent.
30 November 2007
15 November 2007
007 ~ Starting Afresh
At present, the PNP maintains a pool of Filipino police officers awaiting orders for deployment anywhere within the continents of Africa, Asia, Europe, and North America.
Not long ago, these police officers were applicants who underwent a series of tests administered by both the PNP and the UN. Not long ago, they were closely scrutinized and measured by proctors and observers at camps around the country, as they labored under time pressure. They went without compromise or arrangement, with neither right nor privilege to cry, “Wait!” or “Take Two!” (let alone, “Take Three!”).
They meant serious business, going to the testing site on schedule, ready and confidently demonstrating their mental and physical proficiencies, not any more needing to waste other people’s time. They have refined their agility and muscle power, their driving and firing skills, way before exam time.
Thus, prior to departing for the mission area, the officers on standby have proven themselves worthy of serving the world.
The profession is not a joke. The mission area is not a playground. The hostilities are not part of a tabletop exercise that can be aborted at will. Instituting the host country’s police force is not as easy and relaxed as typing names and birth dates into the personnel databases; it is not an escapist’s chore and excuse for sneaking into a minimized browser to read personal e-mail.
There are no second chances when pro-Taliban activists in Afghanistan, mercenaries in Côte d’Ivoire, extremists in Nepal, or heavily armed gangsters in Haïti, open fire at any moving object –much less, at somebody getting complacent under the UN Blue Beret. There are no reversal prospects on the hazard-filled roads of Kosovo and Timor-Leste. There is no repelling the ferocious disease-bearing insects from stinging away in Liberia and the Sudan.
In sticky situations, the police officers should be able to use soul, heart, mind, and body, to extricate themselves. It is only by the ability to exist, feel, think, and do, as survival and morals together require, that anybody in danger can come out the least scathed.
Not long ago, these police officers were applicants who underwent a series of tests administered by both the PNP and the UN. Not long ago, they were closely scrutinized and measured by proctors and observers at camps around the country, as they labored under time pressure. They went without compromise or arrangement, with neither right nor privilege to cry, “Wait!” or “Take Two!” (let alone, “Take Three!”).
They meant serious business, going to the testing site on schedule, ready and confidently demonstrating their mental and physical proficiencies, not any more needing to waste other people’s time. They have refined their agility and muscle power, their driving and firing skills, way before exam time.
Thus, prior to departing for the mission area, the officers on standby have proven themselves worthy of serving the world.
The profession is not a joke. The mission area is not a playground. The hostilities are not part of a tabletop exercise that can be aborted at will. Instituting the host country’s police force is not as easy and relaxed as typing names and birth dates into the personnel databases; it is not an escapist’s chore and excuse for sneaking into a minimized browser to read personal e-mail.
There are no second chances when pro-Taliban activists in Afghanistan, mercenaries in Côte d’Ivoire, extremists in Nepal, or heavily armed gangsters in Haïti, open fire at any moving object –much less, at somebody getting complacent under the UN Blue Beret. There are no reversal prospects on the hazard-filled roads of Kosovo and Timor-Leste. There is no repelling the ferocious disease-bearing insects from stinging away in Liberia and the Sudan.
In sticky situations, the police officers should be able to use soul, heart, mind, and body, to extricate themselves. It is only by the ability to exist, feel, think, and do, as survival and morals together require, that anybody in danger can come out the least scathed.
