Part One.
RETHINKING, REDEFINING THE MISSION
It is the PNP Directorate for Plans, specifically its Inter-Agency and International Affairs Division, which arranges Filipino police deployments to overseas peace support and humanitarian operations.
This office –being at once a repository of international-peacekeeper records, the chair and secretariat of the selection board, and the hub of mission-related communications to and from the police regional offices and abroad– is thus expected to analyze available data and make solid recommendations pertaining to the future of the PNP Contingent. Its existence is only a bit older than the Global Pulisya itself, but as much wanting to be apace with demands of the times.
There runs a list of personal views given by those who had had the privilege of coordinating and supervising the entire deployment process: on efficient, on-time, to-the-last-beat-patrol-officer-in-the-remotest-barangay transmittal of calls for applications; recruitment system, perhaps including the screening of selection-board members; pre-departure orientation and training; securing of administrative clearances and travel documents; handling of required baggage, particularly firepower in armed missions; objectivity in geographic- and gender-balancing, rotating and re-upping peacekeepers; management of contingent affairs, especially the imposition of periodic reports to PNP National Headquarters.
Homecoming assignments are another bristly matter.
As for a basic and crisp official statement, it’s an answer to the following questions:
Is the PNP Contingent a mere token force to make good on an intergovernmental commitment, putting in mind the large peace and order demands on the home front?
Or is it to be maintained as a substantive international deployment, given the multilateral benefits and the PNP’s take on globalization? If so, how many (wo)man-hours can the Philippines afford to share with the more needy nations at a time? And how many (wo)man-hours of honest-to-goodness, strictly enforced reentry immersion on the Philippine policingscape are deemed necessary?
Toward what vision and overall structure does the series of overseas-deployment initiatives lead?
What are the safeguards against callousness, inefficiency, and senseless delays in carrying out pre- and post-mission programs, considering that both the world and the Filipino people do not have the luxury of time awaiting the final (and executory) decision of a top-notch police-contributing country?
The PNP Contingent can always use some guidance on implementing the spanking, clear-cut policy that governs the institutional stand on this endeavor. It can always be made accountable for lapses in judgment.
Part Two.
REWORKING, REFINING THE MINDSET
The one personal opinion that lingers is for PNP National Headquarters, specifically the Directorate for Personnel and Records Management that processes contingent reentry, to encourage the local application of invaluable inputs from returning seconded personnel.
Two reasons:
First, the PNP Contingent, coming under the operational command of the UN (in thirteen, out of fifteen overseas assistance missions, within sixteen years), reflects universal standards on human rights norms and basic democratic values, as well as on responsive and responsible policing.
Almost everyone has heard about stock-discipline talk, but not so many have paid attention to the fact the PNP Contingent was never subjected to dishonorable repatriation due to street-level extortion or headquarters-level corruption. Out there, the Filipino police had no involvement whatsoever in illicit power structures, if any.
The UN’s rules are too stiff to be bent and too tightly packaged to even make room for quiet internal agreements that defeat the purpose of transparency.
Second, the PNP Contingent as flesh to several UN peacekeeping visions has mastered the transfer of elementary criminological techniques, all coherent and widely accepted –having vetted and certified, mentored and monitored, molded and seasoned, the law enforcement authorities of Cambodia, Haïti, Timor-Leste, Liberia, Afghanistan, the Sudan, Côte d’Ivoire, and Nepal. It even took part in the constitution and subsequent staffing of the Kosovar police service.
On a very typical day in Cambodia, circa 1992-93, a Filipino UN CivPol (Civilian Police, as the UN Police of long ago were called) would be seen training scores of Cambodian police. A less-than- ordinary occasion would witness two or three PNP officers training hundreds of locals on public safety and area security, and teaching women and children the English language afterward.
There was this extraordinary episode during the mission where a PNP officer gathered members and sympathizers of the four warring factions (yes, including the dreaded Khmer Rouge). By exercising patience, he was able to put these former archenemies together under one barracks-roof, and reorient their ideology toward the one embraced by the legitimate outfit.
The treasure-trove of stories speaks of the PNP Contingent’s rich experience in breathing life into plans and programs on establishing the rule of law, and on introducing necessary policing skills to the law enforcement agencies that had stagnated because of protracted internal conflicts.
Empowering the Global Pulisya’s men- and women-in-uniform, therefore, is a sensible way to welcome dynamism within the PNP –at not much cost. After all, these personnel were once the PNP’s eyes and ears out there in the world beyond the country’s borders.
All it takes is a little more post-mission assessment of performance and acquired capabilities. Additionally, it should be incumbent on all the offices involved to clearly state to members of the PNP Contingent that giving back to their own organization is not an excruciatingly painful obligation. Rather, it is a fine opportunity to redress systematic faults that arrest intra-institutional growth.
30 December 2007
25 December 2007
011 ~ Global Pulisya Christmases
SPECIAL RELEASE
The PNP Contingent’s first overseas celebration of that time of year was in the former Indochina, in 1992. It was in a festive mood, passing the occasion with comrades from the Philippine Marines.
Its first differently spent Christmastide was in the Balkans, in 1999, under temperate-climate conditions that seemed ruthless for sons of the tropics, nearly two dozens of them. Kosovo’s power infrastructure had been razed by the ethnic wars and the succeeding bombardment by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s Operation Joint Guardian.
For the Filipino police, that translated to no electricity for heaters so they had to stock up on wood in their accommodations for burning throughout the long nights of winter. That also meant having to take turns in dozing off, so there would be somebody to tend the fire.
Mornings at work, the Filipino police layered their garments to trap warm air, and shield them from the subzero temperature. They made sure to keep themselves breathing and kicking as they performed the full law enforcement functions required of the UN’s pilot executive mission. The duties included perfecting their winter-driving skills, including the utilization of traction devices against slippery roads toward patrol and community assistance sorties. Brr!
It was in 2003 when the Filipino police first spent the Holidays in the desert, having been flown into the Middle East as a humanitarian contribution to the people of Iraq. The spell was a lot less frigid, but it was cool enough for the boys to require snug coats.
The scenario was a far shiver from that in the Sudan, in 2005, where the first Filipino officers could afford sweating a fifteen-kilometer jog on dry and sandy trails within their encampment. For Yuletide supper, they partook of modest servings of instant Lucky Me pancit canton noodles and 555 sardines –the unofficial MREs, meals (almost) ready to eat, brought in from the Philippines. It was humbled by the Season’s fares on the tables for Liberia and new-millennium Haïti, which both enjoyed scrumptious cuisine à la Philippine military.
There is always something unique about each Christmas season celebrated by the PNP Contingent. The overseas-mission environments differ from one another, and so are the degrees of merrymaking, the degrees in temperature, the dishes (or the heartrending lack of it), the company.
What remained constant was the act of spreading and reaping good cheer, and that these police officers enjoyed the extra-high spirits.
The PNP Contingent’s first overseas celebration of that time of year was in the former Indochina, in 1992. It was in a festive mood, passing the occasion with comrades from the Philippine Marines.
Its first differently spent Christmastide was in the Balkans, in 1999, under temperate-climate conditions that seemed ruthless for sons of the tropics, nearly two dozens of them. Kosovo’s power infrastructure had been razed by the ethnic wars and the succeeding bombardment by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s Operation Joint Guardian.
For the Filipino police, that translated to no electricity for heaters so they had to stock up on wood in their accommodations for burning throughout the long nights of winter. That also meant having to take turns in dozing off, so there would be somebody to tend the fire.
Mornings at work, the Filipino police layered their garments to trap warm air, and shield them from the subzero temperature. They made sure to keep themselves breathing and kicking as they performed the full law enforcement functions required of the UN’s pilot executive mission. The duties included perfecting their winter-driving skills, including the utilization of traction devices against slippery roads toward patrol and community assistance sorties. Brr!
It was in 2003 when the Filipino police first spent the Holidays in the desert, having been flown into the Middle East as a humanitarian contribution to the people of Iraq. The spell was a lot less frigid, but it was cool enough for the boys to require snug coats.
The scenario was a far shiver from that in the Sudan, in 2005, where the first Filipino officers could afford sweating a fifteen-kilometer jog on dry and sandy trails within their encampment. For Yuletide supper, they partook of modest servings of instant Lucky Me pancit canton noodles and 555 sardines –the unofficial MREs, meals (almost) ready to eat, brought in from the Philippines. It was humbled by the Season’s fares on the tables for Liberia and new-millennium Haïti, which both enjoyed scrumptious cuisine à la Philippine military.
There is always something unique about each Christmas season celebrated by the PNP Contingent. The overseas-mission environments differ from one another, and so are the degrees of merrymaking, the degrees in temperature, the dishes (or the heartrending lack of it), the company.
What remained constant was the act of spreading and reaping good cheer, and that these police officers enjoyed the extra-high spirits.
15 December 2007
010 ~ Great Tidings Once Brought
Fifty-seven Christmases ago, members of PEFTOK, the Philippine Expeditionary Forces to Korea, were weathering the Global Kawal’s first winter battlefield. The “wonderland” adventure was not as much of dodging shrapnel as of doing away with frostbite.
The PEFTOK contingent serving at the time was the 10th Battalion Combat Team (BCT) of the Philippine Army, initially under the command of Colonel Mariano C Azurin. He would be replaced by an equally competent officer (Colonel Dionisio S Ojeda) –but not for inefficiency in leading the UN Command (UNC) in Korea’s fourth largest contingent, and the sole complement heavily trained in combat operations versus communist guerillas.
The Filipino colonel’s issue was pounding on the commander of his attaching unit, a US Army regiment, for nothing else but ensuring the timely delivery of soldier provisions, especially the appropriate gear against the harsh elements. That winter, the peninsula’s coldest in 200 years, the 1,400-man component suffered the very irresponsible supply omission by the hierarchy. On top of the chilblain affliction, PEFTOK was shattered into companies that were subsequently deployed far apart from one another.
The 10th BCT was tided over by the shipment of clothing coming from the Philippines, donated by gracious countrymen and collected through drives by civic organizations and the government of president and Armed Forces of the Philippines commander in chief Elpidio R Quirino. (The multinational force’s official garment allocation for PEFTOK arrived somehow, after an excruciating amount of time.)
Actually, the crisis had arisen and was resolved before the turn of Yuletide, so that the men were already jollier good fellows during their merriment in Suwon, the battalion’s new sector of responsibility. They were back on the high morale level that could make them hold the line despite the ugly odds they were made to face.
It was a clever UNC decision.
That year-ender week toward 1951, the Filipino contingent had braced up enough for the enemy’s surprise attack on New Year’s Eve. The 10th BCT was reinforcing the defense lines when the communists attempted an encroachment on South Korea for the second time since the war began. Afterward, it embarked on its long and dangerous northward quest for a place on the front line, along the 38th Parallel.
To be emphatic about it, the cleverness in decision-making (which might or might not be influenced by the spirit of Christmas) had PEFTOK’s synergy outlasting the season. The well-gelled contingent survived the succeeding battles, mainly the Battle of Yultong, fought during the “Great Spring Offensive” launched by a new 250,000-strong wave of pro-North Korean fighters.
The 10th BCT was rotated when the summer was winding down. It brought home the glory of being revered by the UNC as “The Fighting Tenth” for its unquestionable, distinguished bravery. It was dearly remembered for securing extreme positions, charging at major enemy emplacements, and even for selflessly getting in hostile crosshairs to extract beleaguered battalions* of the friendly forces.
===
*After performing its main task in the Battle of Yultong, the 10th BCT endeavored to rescue the British forces’ Gloucestershire Battalion pinned down by three army divisions of the pro-North Korean People’s Republic of China. Five Filipinos were killed in that specific mission, bringing to fifteen the total number of PEFTOK deaths within the 48-hour encounter.
- Global Kawal, The Working Historiography, ©2007
[By courtesy, AFP Peacekeeping Operations Center.]
The PEFTOK contingent serving at the time was the 10th Battalion Combat Team (BCT) of the Philippine Army, initially under the command of Colonel Mariano C Azurin. He would be replaced by an equally competent officer (Colonel Dionisio S Ojeda) –but not for inefficiency in leading the UN Command (UNC) in Korea’s fourth largest contingent, and the sole complement heavily trained in combat operations versus communist guerillas.
The Filipino colonel’s issue was pounding on the commander of his attaching unit, a US Army regiment, for nothing else but ensuring the timely delivery of soldier provisions, especially the appropriate gear against the harsh elements. That winter, the peninsula’s coldest in 200 years, the 1,400-man component suffered the very irresponsible supply omission by the hierarchy. On top of the chilblain affliction, PEFTOK was shattered into companies that were subsequently deployed far apart from one another.
The 10th BCT was tided over by the shipment of clothing coming from the Philippines, donated by gracious countrymen and collected through drives by civic organizations and the government of president and Armed Forces of the Philippines commander in chief Elpidio R Quirino. (The multinational force’s official garment allocation for PEFTOK arrived somehow, after an excruciating amount of time.)
Actually, the crisis had arisen and was resolved before the turn of Yuletide, so that the men were already jollier good fellows during their merriment in Suwon, the battalion’s new sector of responsibility. They were back on the high morale level that could make them hold the line despite the ugly odds they were made to face.
It was a clever UNC decision.
That year-ender week toward 1951, the Filipino contingent had braced up enough for the enemy’s surprise attack on New Year’s Eve. The 10th BCT was reinforcing the defense lines when the communists attempted an encroachment on South Korea for the second time since the war began. Afterward, it embarked on its long and dangerous northward quest for a place on the front line, along the 38th Parallel.
To be emphatic about it, the cleverness in decision-making (which might or might not be influenced by the spirit of Christmas) had PEFTOK’s synergy outlasting the season. The well-gelled contingent survived the succeeding battles, mainly the Battle of Yultong, fought during the “Great Spring Offensive” launched by a new 250,000-strong wave of pro-North Korean fighters.
The 10th BCT was rotated when the summer was winding down. It brought home the glory of being revered by the UNC as “The Fighting Tenth” for its unquestionable, distinguished bravery. It was dearly remembered for securing extreme positions, charging at major enemy emplacements, and even for selflessly getting in hostile crosshairs to extract beleaguered battalions* of the friendly forces.
===
*After performing its main task in the Battle of Yultong, the 10th BCT endeavored to rescue the British forces’ Gloucestershire Battalion pinned down by three army divisions of the pro-North Korean People’s Republic of China. Five Filipinos were killed in that specific mission, bringing to fifteen the total number of PEFTOK deaths within the 48-hour encounter.
- Global Kawal, The Working Historiography, ©2007
[By courtesy, AFP Peacekeeping Operations Center.]
10 December 2007
009 ~ The Stars They Are
SPECIAL RELEASE
Fifty-nine years ago, on 10 December 1948, UN member-states including the Philippines adopted and proclaimed UN General Assembly resolution 217A(III), the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Seventy-two days ago, on 29 September when President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo installed the new PNP chief, unconditional vanguardism of the people against human rights abuse was imposed on the Filipino police outfit.
The PNP should be in good hands, with several of its top-brass officers having had extra exposure on the repercussions of the world’s most gruesome wholesale violations against persons. It could seek the good advice of active one-, two-, or three-star police generals whose personal data sheets detail participation in international-peacekeeping affairs.
There are, in alphabetical order, UN Blue Berets Charlemagne S Alejandrino, Emmanuel R Carta, Raul S Gonzales, Renato DF Heredia, Ronald D Roderos, and Samson R Tucay; and post-Operation Iraqi Freedom multinational-force element Sukarno G Ikbala.
Or it could ask for guidance from retired Police Chief Superintendent Jose O Dalumpines, the PNP Contingent’s first-ever commander. He holds the distinction of shepherding the Filipino police in two different mission areas (Cambodia and Haïti), in three successive operations (UN Transitional Authority in Cambodia, US-led Joint Task Force 190’s Operation Uphold Democracy in Haïti, and UN Mission in Haïti).
Actually, the work of these esteemed gentlemen was to help clean up the genocidal mess in Cambodia, the cutthroat chaos in Haïti, the slash-and-burn disarray in East Timor, and the after-intervention anomie in Iraq. Having done any one of these, though within a limited timeframe, they must know a great deal about the length and width, the depth and breadth of the conflicts that spouted opportunities to inflict acute –if not fatal– physical, mental, emotional, and socio-economic torment on populations.
As the world turns, the Philippines is given the close watch for the systematic curtailment of civil liberties. This should never be the case in a democracy-hoisting society, especially one that front-lined in sounding the universal clarion call to uphold the fundamental freedoms of the animal kingdom’s wisest and most intelligent species.
Granting that the Philippines does not actually host as much barbarity and ruthlessness as olden-times Cambodia, Haïti, East Timor, or Iraq, she has been classified as carrying the propensity. Sadly.
Gladly, the Philippines and her people can lean on a law enforcement agency of thinkers and doers with a solid background in transparency- and democratic-policing, to ponder then pursue sustainable courses of action on this account.
It’s a doable thing, sparing the nation from harsher large-scale external observation and criticism. It’s not impossible either to get into fully recognizing the human being’s inherent dignity, and his or her equal inalienable rights.
Counted and used wisely, blessings on hand can be optimized. This thought needs retelling time and again.
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SHINING THROUGH. Retired Police Chief Superintendent Dalumpines (left) is joined by his subordinates in command of the PNP's first international peace support operation, during the PNP Peacekeeping Force to Cambodia Association's annual general assembly in 2006 (second from left, to right): Carta (now Police Director), Alejandrino (now Police Director), and Roderos (now Police Chief Superintendent).
[Photo by courtesy, PNP Public Information Office.]
Fifty-nine years ago, on 10 December 1948, UN member-states including the Philippines adopted and proclaimed UN General Assembly resolution 217A(III), the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Seventy-two days ago, on 29 September when President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo installed the new PNP chief, unconditional vanguardism of the people against human rights abuse was imposed on the Filipino police outfit.
The PNP should be in good hands, with several of its top-brass officers having had extra exposure on the repercussions of the world’s most gruesome wholesale violations against persons. It could seek the good advice of active one-, two-, or three-star police generals whose personal data sheets detail participation in international-peacekeeping affairs.
There are, in alphabetical order, UN Blue Berets Charlemagne S Alejandrino, Emmanuel R Carta, Raul S Gonzales, Renato DF Heredia, Ronald D Roderos, and Samson R Tucay; and post-Operation Iraqi Freedom multinational-force element Sukarno G Ikbala.
Or it could ask for guidance from retired Police Chief Superintendent Jose O Dalumpines, the PNP Contingent’s first-ever commander. He holds the distinction of shepherding the Filipino police in two different mission areas (Cambodia and Haïti), in three successive operations (UN Transitional Authority in Cambodia, US-led Joint Task Force 190’s Operation Uphold Democracy in Haïti, and UN Mission in Haïti).
Actually, the work of these esteemed gentlemen was to help clean up the genocidal mess in Cambodia, the cutthroat chaos in Haïti, the slash-and-burn disarray in East Timor, and the after-intervention anomie in Iraq. Having done any one of these, though within a limited timeframe, they must know a great deal about the length and width, the depth and breadth of the conflicts that spouted opportunities to inflict acute –if not fatal– physical, mental, emotional, and socio-economic torment on populations.
As the world turns, the Philippines is given the close watch for the systematic curtailment of civil liberties. This should never be the case in a democracy-hoisting society, especially one that front-lined in sounding the universal clarion call to uphold the fundamental freedoms of the animal kingdom’s wisest and most intelligent species.
Granting that the Philippines does not actually host as much barbarity and ruthlessness as olden-times Cambodia, Haïti, East Timor, or Iraq, she has been classified as carrying the propensity. Sadly.
Gladly, the Philippines and her people can lean on a law enforcement agency of thinkers and doers with a solid background in transparency- and democratic-policing, to ponder then pursue sustainable courses of action on this account.
It’s a doable thing, sparing the nation from harsher large-scale external observation and criticism. It’s not impossible either to get into fully recognizing the human being’s inherent dignity, and his or her equal inalienable rights.
Counted and used wisely, blessings on hand can be optimized. This thought needs retelling time and again.
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SHINING THROUGH. Retired Police Chief Superintendent Dalumpines (left) is joined by his subordinates in command of the PNP's first international peace support operation, during the PNP Peacekeeping Force to Cambodia Association's annual general assembly in 2006 (second from left, to right): Carta (now Police Director), Alejandrino (now Police Director), and Roderos (now Police Chief Superintendent).
[Photo by courtesy, PNP Public Information Office.]
