THE BEST POLICY. The Noy Honesto Café is now selling rice and even appliances to members of the police cooperative.
Photo from CebuGov.Ph
What started as a small display of bread, crackers and coffee at the Cebu Provincial Police Office (CPPO) had now become a successful self-service outlet called the Noy Honesto Coffee Shop.
Still located at the CPPO headquarters, the Noy Honesto Coffee Shop expanded its services to loan sacks of rice and appliances to police personnel and visiting customers.
Launched by then CPPO director Senior Supt. Noel Gillamac, the self-service cafe is run by the Cebu Provincial Police Office Consumers Cooperative. It took its name from the teleserye “Honesto.”
Cebu Gov. Hilario Davide III and Chief Supt. Prudencio Bañas, then Police Regional Office chief, talk about the launching of the Noy Honesto Café in this Feb. 4, 2015 file photo. An Honesto Café is also operational at the Cebu Provincial Jail (below).
Customers choose from snacks displayed in the self-service cafe and leave their payment in a transparent jar.
With no attendants to man the store, the co-op counts on the honesty of their customers to settle their bill.
The café has tables for dining guests, a LED TV with cable connection, electric fans and free Wi-Fi.
Aside from bread, siopao and siomai, police can now buy rice from the café.
PO3 Flordeliza Realista, the business manager of Noy Honesto, said they allow police and non-uniformed personnel who are members of the co-op to take items like rice which they will pay when they can.
“It’s not the same every day. Sometimes the café has a deficit. We also cannot say that the police were not honest in getting and paying for the items.
Because at the CPPO we have also clients who are civilians. So we cannot pinpoint and blame all to the police,” Realista said.
Still, Realista said the Noy Honesto Café is growing in terms of profit.
She believes that the café will endure because it is patronized by their co-op members./Reporter Nestle L. Semilla