Tobias joins East Timor mission for second time
After serving as OIC city police director, Senior Supt. Bartolome Tobias will once again join the United Nations Integrated Mission in Timor-Leste (UNMIT).
Tobias was replaced by Supt. Eugenio Espejo as the OIC city director effective December 1, 2008. He is waiting for the final orders for their deployment in East Timor.
The deployment of PNP officers in the UN peacekeeping operations in East Timor is the country's long time commitment to the United Nations since 1999.
The UN mission was created in response to the violent clashes between rival factors in East Timor armed forces and national police.
In an interview, Tobias said he is only part of the PNP contingent and has no major designation in the UN's deployment in East Timor. It is the second time that Tobias has been part of the UN peacekeeping force in the Timor-Leste.
Before he assumed as the chief of the directorate for intelligence and investigation of the Police Regional Office 6, Tobias was with the UNMIT in Timor Leste too.
Other than the UNMIT, the country has also sent humanitarian support mission as part of the International Force in East Timor (INTERFET) and UN Transitional Administration in East Timor (UNTAET).
According to Tobias, it was the PNP hierarchy that included his name in the list of police officials to become part of the mission. He came to know of his participation in the mission until Tobias received an email from the UN and Philippine National Police.
The inclusion of the PNP in the UN mission is a reaffirmation of the positive contribution of Filipino peacekeepers in East Timor. The country is also a top police contributing country in Southeast Asia with deployment in UN missions in Haiti, Cote d'Ivoire, Afghanistan, Burundi, Liberia, Kosovo and Sudan.
Aside from Tobias, former Lapaz chief of police Chief Inspector Uldarico Garbanzos also joins in the recent batch of police officials to join the UNMIT.