The Cebu City Police Office unexpectedly received a letter of thanks and tokens of appreciation from a retired American policeman for the recovery of his lost baggage few months ago while on vacation here.
The letter, channeled through an uptown hotel, addressed to Sr. Supt. Patrocinio Comendador was from Richard W. LeBlanc of Western Springfield, Massachusetts.
In his letter dated October 27, LeBlanc said he is a Gold Badge member of Western Massachusetts Chiefs of Police Association that according to Comendador is an elite group of retired police chiefs in the US.
Comendador, who could not anymore recall the date when LeBlanc’s baggage was recovered, said the letter was intended to “thank the city police for its works as a law enforcement office” and expressed his “respect for the police work of the CCPO.”
LeBlanc said he visited a Cebuana nursing student and the girl’s family at that time while staying in an uptown hotel.
It was not stated when and where the baggage was lost and how it was recovered by the city policemen and turned over to LeBlanc.
“Please accept these calendars and cap as a token of hospitality and respect for your law enforcement work,” the letter read.
The package contained the letter and several 2008 calendars printed with two separate pictures of policemen, one wearing a 1928 era police uniform of the Western Massachusetts Police and the other, policemen in modern time. The cap is embroidered with the word “Chief.”
“As a public servant, we do not distinguish whom to serve. Ang amo lang we deliver the service, then after kung naa’y praises nga madawat namo, mas labing maayo. Kung wala, ok lang gihapon,” Comendador said in reaction to the letter.
He said he will find a way to determine who among his men helped recover the American’s baggage in order to give him or them commendations during the regular flag ceremony.
The letter was channeled to the uptown hotel because LeBlanc learned that one of the female employees he had befriended is the wife of a policeman, PO1 Arnel Palanas. The cop is assigned at the PNP Regional Dental Services-7.
Palanas, in an interview, said he was asked by his wife to hand the letter to Comendador after LeBlanc sent it to the hotel. He disclosed that the policemen who recovered the baggage are assigned at the Mabolo Police station. — Edwin Ian Melecio/MEEV