4 Filipino peacekeepers home from Haiti

MANILA, Philippines — The remains of the four Filipino peacekeepers who died in last month’s deadly earthquake in Haiti arrived Tuesday morning.

Government and military officials, led by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and Foreign Affairs Secretary Alberto Romulo, joined the families of Air Force Sergeant Janice Arocena, Navy Data Processor-3 Pearly Panangui, and Army Sergeant Eustacio Bermudez of the 10th Philippine Peacekeeping Contingent in Haiti and United Nations staff member Jerome Yap in an emotional homecoming at the Villamor Air Base.

Romulo paid tribute to the fallen UN peacekeepers and said their sacrifice will serve as an inspiration for future generations of peacekeepers. He met and expressed his condolences to the families of each of the four victims, whose flag-draped remains arrived on board Philippine Airlines flight PR 103 from Los Angeles at 5:25 a.m.

The four remains arrived home exactly three weeks after the earthquake leveled the capital, Port-au-Prince, and left more than 112,000 people dead.

“Today, it is with heavy hearts that we welcome our fallen home. But it is with deep pride that we can say that this great loss will serve as a real inspiration, not just for future generations of Filipino peacekeepers, but for all those working towards world peace,” said Romulo, who also heads the Interagency Council on United Nations Peacekeeping Operations.

“As we grieve over our loss and the devastating tragedy caused by the earthquake in Haiti, we comfort ourselves with the thought that our fallen comrades spent the final moments of their lives in the service of peace and humanity,” Romulo added, noting that all four were on duty at the UN headquarters in Port-au-Prince when the earthquake struck.

The four Filipinos were among those killed when the multi-story headquarters of the UN Stabilization Mission in Haiti (Minustah) collapsed after the capital was struck by magnitude-7.0 earthquake on January 12. The dead included Ambassador Hedi Annabi, Special Representative of the UN Secretary General in Haiti and his deputy, Luiz Carlos Da Costa.

Romulo also paid tribute to members of the 10th Philippine Peacekeeping Contingent in Haiti led by Lieutenant Colonel Lope Dagoy and the Philippine National Police component led by Senior Superintendent Rodolfo Fuentes for immediately responding after the earthquake by taking part in search and rescue efforts as well as in looking after members of the Filipino community in Haiti.

Two other Filipinas remain unaccounted for and are believed to be in the rubble of the Caribbean Supermarket in Port-au-Prince.

Romulo said the death of the three military peacekeepers is the single biggest loss suffered by the Philippines in the 46 years it has been participating in UN peacekeeping operations.

Captain Emmanuel Rabaya was killed when an improvised explosive went off while serving in the UN Guard Contingent in Iraq in 1996 while Staff Sergeant Antonio Batomalaque of the 1st Philippine Peacekeeping Contingent in Haiti was killed when gunmen attacked UN peacekeepers in Port-au-Prince in 2005.

Romulo said Yap was the fifth Filipino lost while in the service of the UN since 2003 when a terrorist attack at the UN Headquarters in Baghdad claimed the life of Ranillo Buenaventura.

Three other UN staff members from the Philippines were killed in terrorist-related incidents: Jossie Esto of the UN Volunteers Program in Kabul in 2009; Perseveranda So of the UN Children’s Fund in Peshawar, also in 2009; and Gene Luna of the World Food Program in Algiers in 2008.

Source: Global Nation Inquirer.
Link: http://globalnation.inquirer.net/news/breakingnews/view/20100202-250902/4-Filipino-peacekeepers-home-from-Haiti.