Love and sacrifice: A story of a policeman’s model family

CEBU CITY, Philippines — Police Executive Master Sergeant Geronimo Anor was a young lad from the southern Cebu town of Alcoy who dreamed to become a pilot.

But life was difficult.

His parents barely had enough money to feed all nine children, let alone send the young Geronimo to school.

But he was determined to pursue his dream.

Geronimo studied in his hometown’s local school, the Alcoy Elementary School and then went to the Alcoy National High School for his secondary education.

He took various jobs to help the family and send himself to college, finally graduating a degree in Criminology from the University of the Visayas in 1989. 

Still, luck and financial resources were not on his side so he worked as a construction worker with the plan of saving money to pay for the National Police Commission (Napolcom) examination fees in 1990.

Geronimo was convinced by a friend to take the examinations so he can become a policeman and have a more stable job.

During that time, police work to him was a way of making a decent living so he can eat and pay the rent.

For one year, Geronimo trained to become a policeman in Cebu City .

After graduation, he served as a combatant for then the Field Force of the Central Visayas Regional Police.

Two years later, in 1992, he chose a slower life and served in the Minglanilla Municipal Police Station, where he eventually settled down after meeting his wife, Ratchila.

They were later blessed with a daughter whom they named, Kaye.

Finding love

Geronimo took the position of an intelligence officer but a change of assignment brought him to the door of the late Minglanilla mayor Eduardo Selma.

It was in the mayor’s office that he found the love of his life.

Ratchila Cañedo was working as a staff of Mayor Selma in 1992 when she met Geronimo.

Constant meeting in the office sparked a liking for each other and before long, the two started dating and became a couple.

Geronimo’s job as a policeman did not bother Ratchila until a hostage-taking incident happened at the Minglanilla Municipal Hall in 1993 when Geronimo was part of the force who responded to the incident.

“I told myself I will never marry a policeman,” she recalls.

But on October 1, 1994, she married Geronimo.

Their daughter, Kaye, was born the following year.

With a policeman for a husband, Ratchila says she has to share him with a “mistress” whose name is “his job.”

The Anor family wins as first runner-up in the Philippine National Police (PNP) Model Family search in the provincial category. | CONTRIBUTED PHOTO

Sacrifices

Ratchila realized that a policeman’s duty can often times get in the way with their family schedule especially when their daughter was born.

Geronimo was often called for duty which left Ratchila alone to take care of their baby.

The long nights that her husband was away at work were very difficult for Ratchila as a wife and mother.

But she understood Geronimo’s duty to the country and to the people.

Despite these struggles in their early marriage, Ratchila and Geronimo were able to raise their only child for 24 years.

But Ratchila constantly feared for his husband’s safety.

She says every day is a game of chance afraid that she will not see her husband again.

In 2016, news about a police officer who was killed in a buy-bust operation reached her.

It was one of the longest hours of her life as Ratchila could not get hold of Geronimo.

“Mao to pinakagrabe gyud. Naghuot akong dughan. Nakulbaan gyud ko kay abi nako mao na ni,” she recalls.

(That was the worst. My chest tightened. I was so scared and I thought this is it.)

She breathed a sigh of relief when Geronimo answered her call when she tried to reach him again.

Father

Geronimo may not have been there all the time when Kaye was growing up.

But he made sure that he was very much involved with his daughter’s activities as he believed that a father’s success in parenthood is determined by the children’s character.

Knowing the ills of society first hand, Geronimo was admittedly protective of Kaye as she was growing up.

He wanted to keep her close to home.

But he also understood that Kaye is a woman of his own, who later developed a love for travel like her mother.

As any normal parent would, he also feared that Kaye would be tempted to try illegal drugs.

So when Kaye asked that she be enrolled in a Catholic School in Cebu City in high school, he was very much against it.

He wanted his daughter to continue her education in Minglanilla under his watchful eye.

But Kaye conspired with her mother and enrolled at the University of San Jose-Recoletos without Geronimo’s knowledge.

The policeman had no choice but to concede with his daughter’s wish.

All he could do was to keep Kaye as safe as possible.

That is why overnights were often spent in the Anor family’s house.

To Geronimo’s pride, Kaye graduated as Magna Cum Laude with a degree in Psychology.

Her peers also graduated with honors.

He was the image of a supportive father as he shared how he served as the driver of Kaye and her friends when they went to the Simala Shrine in Sibonga town to ask for guidance before they took the board examination for pyschometricians.

After passing the board, Kaye then worked for the Department of Social Welfare and Development and then left to pursue her graduate studies in clinical psychology at the University of San Carlos.

Lessons

Growing up, Kaye used the “police card” to ward off other children from bullying her.

She used to tell them: “Isumbong ta mo sa akong papa. Pulis to, dakpon mo niya.”

(I will tell my father about you. He’s a policeman. He will arrest you.)

As she grew up, more mature and aware of the events happening around her, Kate learned that her father’s job is more than just arresting people.

She appreciated his efforts to keep the community safe.

She also realized that danger is always part of her father’s job.

In 2013, her father received an anonymous text saying:  “Di na ka maabtag April,” clearly a threat which translates to, “You will be dead before April.”

The family took precautions but Kaye, who was then on her first year in college, was still afraid.

Thankfully, nothing happened.

But it was that experience that the fragility of his father’s life became very clear to her.

Despite the danger, Kaye admires the bravery and commitment of his father. This is why she hopes to become a clinical pyshcologist in the future and serve the community as a public servant like her father.

Retirement

In 2017, Geronimo was assigned to the Alcoy Police Station in line with the mandate of Police Brigadier General Debold Sinas, director of the Police Regional Office in Central Visayas (PRO-7), to distribute all senior officers to different stations.

Geronimo was supposed to stay in Minglanilla but offered to take the place of his colleague who had a more delicate family to take care of.

It can be lonely to be away from his family who lives in Minglanilla town, 86 kilometers from Alcoy.

But he is grateful that his current post in Alcoy is not new to him.

It is the same town where he spent his days as a boy and then later made the decision to become a policeman.

But this distance will not be for long as Geronimo, at 52 years old, will be retiring from service later this year, 2019.

He said he is already too old to be a policeman.

He has done his duty to the country, and now wished to spend his golden years at home.

“Dako kaayo akong pasalamat sa PNP. Tungod ani, nakakaon ko, nagkapamilya ko, nakapadako ko sa akong anak, ug nakapanginabuhi ko’g tarong,” he said.

(I am grateful to the PNP. Because of this job, I was able to eat, build a family, raise my daughter, and make a good living.)

Model family

The Anor family’s example made them win as first runner-up in the Napolcom search for the Model Family in the provincial category.

The main award went to Police Captain Celemente Geralde, Jr., of the Dumanjug Police.

The annual search is done among members of the Philippine National Police in an effort to share the other side of law enforcers: as husbands, wives, parents, sons and daughters to their respective families.

The program, organized in partnership with the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG), also meant to inspire more policemen that their roles as leaders and partners in society is crucial in maintaining peaceful and secure communities.

For Geronimo, a model family is marked by love that binds each member together.

He said a policeman will always have two “wives”: the woman he married and the country he vowed to die for.

But Geronimo said a policeman is also a husband and a father.

If he chose to take those roles, he said the policeman should give his 100% dedication and commitment.

To be a model policeman, he says that every man in uniform should start with raising their children in an environment of discipline and love.

Only then can they be truly effective in their jobs law enforcers; a job that they promise to fulfill to the best of their abilities and with God as their witness. / celr

TAGS: Cebu Provincial Police Office, Napolcom