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MANILA, Philippines -- The Philippines has asked the United Nations to provide answers to the death of a Filipino peacekeeper in Sudan in 2007.
In a diplomatic note sent to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon, Ambassador Hilario Davide, Philippine permanent representative to the UN in New York, requested the UN official investigation report on the case of Lieutenant Colonel Renerio Batallan, a Filipino Army officer who was reported to have succumbed to malaria while serving as a miltary observer with the UN Mission in Sudan (UNMIS).
Davide earlier sought the report but failed to get it. He then reiterated it through a note verbale.
Davide also raised concerns over Batalla's death in the statement he delivered before the 2008 Substantive Session of the Special Committee on Peacekeeping Operations last week.
"It has been more than four months since Lieutenant Colonel Renerio Batalla of the Philippines expired but there are still questions left unanswered," Davide said in his statement which was posted on the mission's website.
"Unfortunately, we do not have the answers as until now the Philippine Government has not received a copy of the Board of Inquiry report on the circumstances surrounding his death," he said. "The Philippines seeks those answers to help Lieutenant Colonel Batalla's family find closure and also to allow us to draw lessons from this tragedy."
A graduate of the Philippine Military Academy Class 1990, Batalla died supposedly of malaria on October 23, 2007, in the regional capital of Rembek a day after his 41st birthday and a few weeks before he was supposed to end his year-long service in Sudan.
According to Davide, the Philippine mission wanted to know if Batalla received prompt and proper medical care after he presented himself at the UN clinic with malaria-like symptoms; if indeed he died of cerebral malaria; and if enough efforts were exerted by UNMIS authorities to have him evacuated immediately to the nearest regional medical facility.
"The Philippines, like any other troop contributing country, gives particular importance to the safety and security of the men and women it sends to distant lands to help keep the peace," the ambassador said.
The Philippines is among the 30 top troop contributing countries with a total of 670 military and police personnel serving in the UN missions in Afghanistan, Cote d' Ivoire, Darfur, Georgia, Haiti, Liberia, Kosovo, Nepal, the Sudan and Timor-Leste. The number includes 21 military observers, 13 of whom are deployed in the Sudan.
Davide noted that from January 2007 to February 2008, 109 peacekeepers died while serving in UN missions. Almost half the number of deaths has been attributed to health-related causes, including that of Batalla.
"We are sure that there are many things we could learn from his death the same way we could learn from deaths due to health-related causes or other non-hostile incidents, most especially those that could have been prevented not only by proper screening, training and supervision but also by the provision of the needed support systems in the field," Davide said.
Earlier, Batalla's widow, Immaculate Batalla, said the death left many questions unanswered.
"Help me and my family find closure on Renerio's death," she asked the UN secretary-general in a separate letter dated March 10. "Please convince us that his death that was not for naught."
Immaculate's letter was prompted by reports that her husband died because he did not receive proper medical attention after he was diagnosed with malaria.
She said she believed that her husband's death could have been avoided had he received proper and immediate medical care.
"I could not understand why a very reputable organization like the United Nations, with all its resources was not able to save the life of someone it has sent to help save others by bringing peace to their troubled land,” she said in her letter.
"If there is something I would like to come out of his death, it would be that we draw some lessons from it, so that those who would follow, would not have to go through what he had to endure,” she said.
