Female CCPO Chief Garma shows women how to succeed in the police service

Senior Superintendent Royina Garma | CDN Digital file photo

CEBU CITY, Philippines — “Work with passion and work with your heart.”

This is the advice of Senior Superintendent Royina Garma to women, who would want to succeed and excel in the police service.

“This is not just a man’s world,” said Garma, who is also the first female director of the Cebu City Police Office (CCPO).

“Sa lahat na gustong mag pulis na mga babae, just follow lang what they like to do. As long as naa sa imoha ang passion, mabeat nato ang perception nga this is a man’s world,” she said. 

(To those women, who want to join the police service, just follow what you like to do. As long as you have the passion, we can beat the perception that this is a man’s world.)

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But following one’s heart and working with passion will only be the start, it should be paired with hard work to succeed.

“They should work with passion talaga. Tapos work with their heart because matatalo yung matatalino pag nagtrabaho ka with your heart and passion” said Garma, who hails from Cagayan valley.

(They should work with passion. Then work with their heart, because they can beat those who are intelligent if they will work hard with their heart and passion.)

Garma, who has been in the police service for at least 22 years, said that women were and would be a great help in the police profession because of their motherly and sisterly instinct.

Senior Superintendent Royina Garma in a March 4 press briefing with Chief Superintendent Debold Sinas discussing the police’s illegal drug operations. |CDN Digital file photo

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She also said in an earlier interview that women would be a nice fit for the service because of their inner strength.

She said that inner strength paired with endurance and patience had been also the qualities that had helped her overcome the challenges as a police officer.

“It is natural in a woman. We have this inner strength that can radiate even to our family,” said Garma, who is in her 40s and a single mother of a teen daughter.

She said that this were also the qualities that had helped her to balance her job as a police director and her family responsibilities as a mother of a 17-year-old daughter, who is staying in Davao.

Despite these qualities, she also cited the challenges she faced in balancing work and family.

“Even ang layo ko ha, gumagawa ako ng assignment. Bina-Viber sa akin, I have to research. Yung ganon na magpapanik ka dahil wala kang magawa,” said Garma. 

(Even if I am far from her, I help her with her assignments. She will send a message through Viber, I have to do research.  It is that kind of situation where you panic because you feel helpless.) 

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She also cited the immense pressure she faced as a female police officer, but her belief that she was there not to compete with male police officers but to work closely with them and complement each other had helped her handle this challenge.

Looking back, Garma said she became a police officer by chance.

Originally, she wanted to become a lawyer, but with the unexpected turn of events, she ended up in the police profession.

“Sinamahan ko lang yung kapatid ko magtake ng exam sa pagkapulis. Eh, kaysa maghintay lang ako, nagtake na rin ako at yun nakapasa ako,” she said. 

(I accompanied my brother, who was taking the exam to become a police officer. And instead of waiting for him to finish the exam, I also took it, and I passed it.)

With this, she decided to stop pursuing the profession she wanted (lawyer), opted to be practical about it and proceeded with her police training.

“Naging practical na lang ako, kasi yung training may bayad, then after graduation secure na yung career mo” said Garma. 

(I was just being practical about it because you would get paid for undergoing the training, and then after graduation your career would be secure.) 

Garma, who was first assigned in Davao City before being deployed in Cebu City, said that she would want to empower women to pursue what they would want to pursue so that they too could achieve their dreams. /dbs