PNP to send ‘all-women' unit to UN peacekeeping mission
A female member the PNP-AFP Contingent to Liberia receives a medal from the head of the Australian Police on November 5, 2014
The Philippines will deploy an all-female police unit to one of the United Nations Peacekeeping missions in the future, a Philippine National Police official said on Tuesday.
'We are preparing for one company, five platoons, all-women formed police unit very soon. And as we are preparing to do this, this is our commitment, pledge to the President to revitalize our contribution in peacekeeping,' said Police Major Sancho Celedio of UN Peacekeeping Center Screening and Deployment Section.
Members of the country's police and the Armed Forces of the Philippines were previously sent to South Korea in the past as part of the Philippine Expeditionary Force.
Celedio said there are PNP personnel currently in South Sudan as part of the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS).
'Currently, we are in South Sudan, we have 25 police personnel there at mayroon ding tropa ang AFP [there's also an AFP troop] in another country in Africa,' he said.
Aside from Sudan, the AFP also has troops deployed in the Central African Republic, India and in Pakistan.
'For the AFP we do have individual deployments, and the biggest one would be from MINUSCA (United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in the Central African Republic), that is in Central African Republic, we have also from UNMISS and also from UN Military Observer Group in India-Pakistan,' said Lieutenant Commodore Douglas Defeles, military staff officer and Humint analyst from MINUSCA in the Central African Republic.
Defeles said the requirements of personnel assigned to be part of peacekeeping missions are 'very specific and very peculiar.'
'We will be working with other nationalities as well, so in terms of training and readiness, we should be trained on how to work with them and especially—and addition to that we are also given the chance to enroll in specific language that is necessary in the particular area for us [like] in Central Africa, we speak French, so we need to somehow learn at some point,' he said.
Meanwhile, Celedio said that being a peacekeeper is a rewarding experience.
'Sa amin, one year lang naman talaga ang deployment [For us, our deployment only lasts a year] and once we complete the tour of duty, we are officially received as ambassadors of our country, represented our organization and our country in another place performing official duties,' he said.
In the past 60 or more years, Filipino peacekeepers have taken part in 21 peacekeeping missions. —RF, GMA Integrated News
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