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.
30 August 2007
15 August 2007
001 ~ Writing History
The two full years spent on building the Filipino police officer's basic international-peacekeeping record, which appears in PART FOUR: THE BODY section of the coffee-table book, was obviously not a breeze.
The process involved the acquisition and filtering of existing lists from several PNP official channels, the adding of facts that had been omitted by mistake and the ridding of erroneous entries, as well as the counterchecking of results with other sources (including retired UN veterans, families of those who have passed on, and external agencies here in the Philippines and abroad), made twice or thrice over.
It took that long, considering the assortment of factors that came well beyond the collaborators' control. (Some factors were outright beneficial, while others could be blessings in disguise.)
It took that long, considering the assortment of minute details that the collaborators had wanted corrected.
To achieve that, it meant having to create new, exclusive, comprehensive databases that could, among countless tasks:
> generate per-person demographic information;
> map ethnicity, career, and other important profiles
(that are hoped to someday contribute
to the PNP's force-generation procedures); and
> estimate (wo)man-hours for each police officer,
for each mission, for each host country.
To think that this activity covered just one of the book's four main sections.
But it was worth all the effort, to have somewhat connected with more than a handful of the 1,075 Filipino policemen and -women who served within the first fifteen-year period of the PNP's involvement in overseas peace-building campaigns (including non-UN missions, such as the 1994-95 multinational operation in Haïti and the 2003-04 humanitarian endeavor in Iraq).
Just by this sub-process, among the many that it took to put the book together, the collaborators would learn, yet again, that patience is indeed an indispensable virtue. And so are sound judgment, tact, temperance, tolerance, thoroughness, and humility above all.
One cannot be too proud to face the issues that are inherent in the chronicling of events and in the construction of milestones that should have been there already. One cannot stop toiling without making sure that all available resources have been exhausted, and without making sure that all perceived and potential resources have been unearthed.
Otherwise, history ---pillar of a people's culture and the springboard to a nation's future--- would be a farce that could erode the edifice of an emerging peace-building power.
The process involved the acquisition and filtering of existing lists from several PNP official channels, the adding of facts that had been omitted by mistake and the ridding of erroneous entries, as well as the counterchecking of results with other sources (including retired UN veterans, families of those who have passed on, and external agencies here in the Philippines and abroad), made twice or thrice over.
It took that long, considering the assortment of factors that came well beyond the collaborators' control. (Some factors were outright beneficial, while others could be blessings in disguise.)
It took that long, considering the assortment of minute details that the collaborators had wanted corrected.
To achieve that, it meant having to create new, exclusive, comprehensive databases that could, among countless tasks:
> generate per-person demographic information;
> map ethnicity, career, and other important profiles
(that are hoped to someday contribute
to the PNP's force-generation procedures); and
> estimate (wo)man-hours for each police officer,
for each mission, for each host country.
To think that this activity covered just one of the book's four main sections.
But it was worth all the effort, to have somewhat connected with more than a handful of the 1,075 Filipino policemen and -women who served within the first fifteen-year period of the PNP's involvement in overseas peace-building campaigns (including non-UN missions, such as the 1994-95 multinational operation in Haïti and the 2003-04 humanitarian endeavor in Iraq).
Just by this sub-process, among the many that it took to put the book together, the collaborators would learn, yet again, that patience is indeed an indispensable virtue. And so are sound judgment, tact, temperance, tolerance, thoroughness, and humility above all.
One cannot be too proud to face the issues that are inherent in the chronicling of events and in the construction of milestones that should have been there already. One cannot stop toiling without making sure that all available resources have been exhausted, and without making sure that all perceived and potential resources have been unearthed.
Otherwise, history ---pillar of a people's culture and the springboard to a nation's future--- would be a farce that could erode the edifice of an emerging peace-building power.
