26 May 2006 – Philippine Ambassador to Dili Farita A. Aguilucho-Ong reported to Foreign Affairs Secretary Alberto G. Romulo that a Filipino police officer serving with the United Nations mission in Timor-Leste  was among those wounded in the latest violence in the troubled country that left as many as nine policemen dead and at least 27 others, including another UN police officer injured.

Ambassador Aguilucho-Ong informed Secretary Romulo that the wounded police officer is  Chief Inspector Edgar Layon, 45, one of five Philippine National Police (PNP) officers serving as advisers with the UN Office in Timor-Leste (UNOTIL).

The Ambassador said Chief Inspector Layon was wounded after renegade soldiers opened fire on unarmed members of the East Timor National Police as they were being evacuated by UN police and military advisers from the police headquarters in Dili at around 1:30 p.m. on Thursday (East Timor time).

Ambassador Aguilucho-Ong added that Chief Inspector Layon, of Sta. Mesa, Manila, sustained a bullet wound in the stomach but is stable and out of danger. She said the Filipino police officer was airlifted on Thursday evening to Darwin, Australia for medical treatment along with another UN officer who was also wounded in the incident.

News reports said nine East Timor policemen were killed and 27 other people were wounded in what has been described as the deadliest encounter between renegade troops and government forces since March when unrest gripped the country following the government's decision to fire 40 percent of the country's military who went on strike to protest alleged discrimination.

Meanwhile, Ambassador Lauro Baja, Permanent Mission to the United Nations in New York, informed Secretary Romulo that the Mission formally informed Chief Inspector Layon's wife, Rochelle, on the condition of her husband early Thursday evening.

Aside from the five Filipino police advisers, an officer from the Armed Forces of the Philippines is serving in UNOTIL as military adviser.

The Philippines is the top police contributing country to UN peacekeeping operations among the member-states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) with 199 police officers serving in the UN missions in Afghanistan, Cote d'Ivoire, Haiti, Kosovo, Liberia, Sudan and Timor Leste.

According to the Philippine Embassy and Philippine Mission, the Dili attack is the first violent incident affecting Filipino police officers serving in the UN since 2004 when the quarters of some members of the Philippine police contingent in Kosovo were torched during inter-ethnic riots in the Serbian province.  Thursday's shooting is also the second violent incident involving Filipino peacekeepers following the death last year of Staff Sergeant Antonio Batomalaque who was killed in action while serving with the Philippine contingent in Haiti.  END