The new police recruits throw their hats up into the air after their graduation at Camp Jessie Robredo.
CDN PHOTO/LITO TECSON
Three women topped the batch of 389 police recruits of the Public Safety Basic Course (PSBC) at Camp Jessie Robredo in Sitio Laray, Barangay Jugan, Consolacion town in northern Cebu.
PO1 Lucille Waminal Alado, of Gingoog, Misamis Oriental, and PO1 Grace Irene Mae Diwan, of Cabalungsa, Bukidnon, got the highest grade of 92.75 of the PSBC, which is the first phase of the one-year police training program, among the “Class 2017 Ephesians” made up of 122 women and 267 men.
“I feel so proud that it is the first time that females topped this kind of training even if being a police officer is male-dominated job,” Diwan, who is also a criminology student in Capitol University in Cagayan de Oro, told Cebu Daily News in an interview on Thursday.
Alado, who is an education graduate of Lanao School and Science Technology, Inc., said she was also happy to prove that women could do men’s job.
“This is the first time that I witnessed three women as the top performing students in this batch. What makes it more amazing is that two women are tied at the No. 1 spot,” Chief Supt. Jose Espino, Police Regional Office in Central Visayas director, said in Filipino.
The second top grade also went to a female police recruit.
Espino encouraged the new graduates to fulfill their oath, which is to serve and protect the public.
Supt. Nelvin Ricohermoso, regional training director, however, said the graduates would still have to undergo a five-month field training and another one-month evaluation before they could become a full-fledged police officer 1.