A Salute to the Police, the Unrecognized Heroes!

My usual shift ends 5am everyday Mondays till Fridays and everyday I walk from the office to EDSA  (Epifanio Delos Santos Avenue) to ride a bus home, but early this morning was different because I had the shock of my life. I rode the bus Northbound as I regularly do to get home and thought that it was a typical day like the old ones, so just the same, I went straight to a seat by the window and waited for the bus conductor to collect my fare. After probably 5 minutes of travel, a group of men suddenly jumped into one of the passenger’s seat and was kind of like having a commotion as if they were trying to find something under their seat. There were in fact 3 men helping each other out to find something when, out of nowhere, another passenger shouted that someone took all of his money from his pocket. As the commotion was happening, another person unexpectedly appeared from the back part of the bus and shouted “everyone get down!” I wasn’t aware of whom this person is but by looking at the color of his pants, I can tell that he is a policeman. He started pointing his gun to the group of men who were having a commotion and was shouting at each of them. The policeman was beside me while he was holding his gun so as I began to panic, I then decided to transfer seat to the back side of the bus and as I was about to stand up, the policemen looked at me and said “don’t stand! Stay on your seat” so I did… It appeared to me that he was trying to apprehend the 3 men who turned out to be robbers with whom we have been travelling along and are seated on different areas of the bus, there were about 8 of them. As he was trying to pick up the 3 men, one of the robbers pulled out his own gun but his friend had to pull him away from everyone and just decided to run away from the scene. Scary? Damn it was…

Funny, but now as I recall the incident, I realized that among everyone inside that bus during the trip early this morning, I was the only person who panicked. I really have that great talent of panicking. But kidding aside, I was very thankful that nothing untoward happened earlier. I was thinking of my family as it happens, probably another one of the defining moments when you realize how lucky you are for all the people in your life and as well as all the blessings. I thank God that we were all safe. After the event, the policeman spoke with the driver and said that from the time the group boarded the bus, he already knew that they were robbers. He was outnumbered so he just had to watch every move from behind as the bus moves. He said, he was just waiting for them to declare a hold up and he will take them out one by one… scary but come to think of it, people like him who makes this country a better place to live in. I suddenly felt the need to have a policeman during my trips to and from the office, but that’s of course is just wishful thinking.

This hope for everyone to have a peaceful country knowing that we have people such as this policeman who can carry out his duty in accordance to his oath. It’s just sad that I didn’t have the chance to get his information, didn’t have the chance to thank this person through this blog… although I know where his office is, might have the chance one day during my off to pay his office a visit. I will share with all of you his information as a way of letting everyone know the day he saved my day… =)

A salute for you Sir! I hope there are a lot more people like you in this country!