RP sends more peacekeepers to world’s hot spots - Davide

MANILA - Filipino soldiers deployed with United Nations peacekeeping forces are at an all-time high with more than a thousand military and police peacekeepers serving in various conflict areas around the world, according to the country’s UN delegation.

In his year-end report to Foreign Affairs Secretary Alberto Romulo, Ambassador Hilario Davide Jr., permanent representative to the UN, said the Philippines had a total of 1,056 Filipino peacekeepers in nine UN peacekeeping missions at the end of 2009.

“We are proud of the fact that despite our limited resources, we were still able to fulfill our obligations as a member of the family of nations,” the envoy said.

He also assured the UN that it could continue counting on the Philippines as a “responsible and reliable” peace-keeping partner.

In a statement from the UN headquarters in New York, Davide said the figure, which represented a 40 percent surge in troop deployment compared to that of 2008, pushed the Philippines up to the 23rd position in the list of the top troop and police contributing countries.

The Philippines was 29th in the list with 626 peacekeepers deployed at the end of 2008.

“The 656 officers and enlisted personnel from the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and the 415 officers from the Philippine National Police (PNP) currently serving with the UN represent the largest number of Filipino peacekeepers deployed overseas since the Philippines participated in its first UN peacekeeping operation during the term of President Diosdado Macapagal,” Davide said.

The Philippines first participated in UN peacekeeping operations in 1963 when it contributed a 40-member squadron from the Philippine Air Force to provide air support for the UN mission in the Congo.

Since then, Filipino peacekeepers have participated in UN operations in Afghanistan, Cambodia, Burundi, Ivory Coast, Sudan’s Darfur and southern regions, Georgia, Golan Heights in the Palestinian territories, Haiti, Iraq, Liberia, the Kashmir regions disputed by Pakistan and India, Kosovo, Nepal, and East Timor.

Davide also reported that the Philippines remains’ on the list of the top contributors of individual police officers to UN operations. He said most PNP peacekeepers are deployed in Africa with 169 serving with the UN-African Union Hybrid Mission in Darfur ; 29 with the UN Mission in Sudan; and 26 with UN Mission in Liberia. Another 153 officers are deployed in East Timor; 22 in Haiti; and one in Afghanistan.