UN to reopen probe on RP peacekeeper's death in 2007

The United Nations has agreed to reopen its investigation on the death of a Philippine Army colonel who died of malaria after a UN doctor failed to extend prompt and proper medical attention to him. According to the Philippine Mission to the UN, the world body promised to conduct another probe on the case Lt. Col. Renerio Batalla after Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro met with Undersecretary General for Peacekeeping Alain Le Roy in New York last week. Batalla was serving as a military observer with the United Nations Mission in Sudan (UNMIS) when he succumbed to cerebral malaria in the southern district of Rembek on October 24, 2007. A UN investigation report released seven months later by the UN Board of Inquiry recommended a reprimand for a UN doctor due to negligence and for not administering immediate treatment to the Filipino soldier. The Philippine Mission said Le Roy “immediately acceded" to Teodoro’s request. It also quoted Teodoro as saying that a review “will go a long way in assuaging whatever doubts or apprehensions that have come about as a result of the tragic death of one of our own." The UN had earlier informed the Philippine Mission that it could not act on the country’s demand to remove the doctor and bar him from serving in other peacekeeping missions, saying there was no evidence of gross negligence and that there was no basis for disciplinary action based on existing UN rules and regulations. The Philippine government however said reopening the investigation could unearth evidence or information that may have been overlooked when the recommendations to reprimand the doctor were made. - GMANews.TV