Tuesday, April 18, 2006
UN to honor Filipino peacekeeper killed in Haiti (7:05 p.m.)
MANILA -- The United Nations (UN) will honor a Filipino peacekeeper killed while serving in Haiti, while five other Filipino peacekeepers received special service medals for their work in East Timor, the Department of Foreign Affairs said Tuesday.
Army Staff Sergeant Antonio Batomalaque will be honored with the Dag Hammarskjold Medal along with several soldiers, police, and civilians from other countries who died in 2005 in UN peace operations worldwide, Philippine Ambassador to the UN Lauro Baja said.
Baja said the Philippine mission in the UN will receive the award on May 29, International Day of UN Peacekeepers, on behalf of the family of Batomalaque, the first Filipino peacekeeper to die in combat.
A member of the 135-man Philippine contingent to the troubled Caribbean country, he was killed by gunmen during a firefight in the Haitian capital Port-au-Prince on April 14, 2005.
In East Timor, five Filipino police officers -- Edgar Layon, Pedrito delos Reyes, Jose Molava Duenas, Joseph Pangilinan and Celso Destajo -- received on April 7 the UN Special Service Medal in rites in the capital Dili, Philippine Ambassador Farita Aguilucho-Ong said Tuesday.
The police officers work for the UN Office in Timor-Leste or UNOTIL. (AP)
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