013 ~ New Year, New Adventure

The Global Pulisya bangs away at the forthcoming deployment of its first contingent-team to that enormous Hybrid mission in the Sudan’s western frontier.

A few weeks from now, about four dozen Filipino police officers will fly into another crisis in the Sudan. They will be among the 3,772-strong UN Police component of UNAMID, the UN-African Union Mission in Darfur, mandated by UN Security Council resolution 1769 to "support early and effective implementation of the Darfur Peace Agreement", reached on 5 May 2006.

The Filipino police are to assist in shaping a sustainable peacescape on the blood-bathed swath of the Sahara.

After undergoing what is expected to be a week-long induction process, they will pick their choice for lodgings at the UNAMID campus: a tiny or a tinier tent space, well-appointed or otherwise; half- or full-board accommodations, or none at all.

After the orientation, they will be charged by mission police headquarters to assist in ending impunity, promoting the rule of law, and rebuilding the lives shamelessly broken by the self-serving. Amid the blistering heat, and minimal use of arms, they will do advisory and executory work to set up the local police structure.

As ever, the operative word is hope.

Hope that no mosquito betrays the potency of the prophylactic pills. Hope that no form of harm will be inflicted on anybody around. Hope that the belligerent forces do not get in the way of plans to propagate the peace.

Hope that there will be justice for the senseless slaughter of innocent civilians, two hundred thousand in all…and probably counting. Hope that there will be safe roads through which humanitarian convoys can reach the six million ill and starving. Hope that the refugee camps can be delivered from the attacking militiamen. Hope that the top-ranking leaders of Sudanese politics will fully cooperate with international benefactors in finally cementing order on the brush.

Then there is hope that within the Year 2008 expansion of the PNP Contingent’s good-neighborliness operations, there comes a better grasp of how liberating it is to share with the world the blessings from a police organization with a stark-determined attitude.


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CRISP AND CLEAR. These are but very few of the countless moments in the PNP Contingent’s long, illustrious history of contributing to international peace and regional security.
[Slide photos by courtesy, Retired Police Chief Superintendent Jose O Dalumpines; Police Superintendents Celso L Bael, Daniel B Fabia III, Roberto B Fajardo, and Robert F Rodriguez; Police Chief Inspector Albert G Magno; Police Senior Inspector Sancho O Celedio; SPO4 Renato D Magbalon Jr; Police Officer 3 Arnel M Go; and the PNP Public Information Office.]