Manila (Philippine Daily Inquirer/ANN) - As a young girl growing up in the town of Tigaon in Camarines Sur, Delia Jacob Ingalla hated to see her playmates picking on other girls. She often got into fights defending the weaker ones from the bullies and suffered numerous bruises for the trouble.
She was always being teased about trying to be a heroine, but this was precisely what she had always pictured herself to be. Years later, Chief Inspector Delia Ingalla is a bemedaled policewoman who will stop to confront a father beating a child or a thug punching his girlfriend on the street.
"I meddle a lot," the 54-year-old mother of two confessed with a laugh.
That propensity for interfering-or nurturing, as she prefers to call it-is what makes her a good woman and an excellent cop, said Ingalla, chief of the women and children's protection desk of the Taguig police force.
Her achievements in policing whatever community she serves has made her one of eight members of the national police force to be conferred the Country's Outstanding Policemen in Service (COPS) award this year.
Ingalla led her staff of eight in rescuing 30 victims of trafficking, many of them children, at little or no cost to their indigent families in separate operations between 2007 and 2008, setting a record in her station.
She has also pursued and arrested countless numbers of sex offenders, including a sexagenarian who forced his 12-year-old niece into a two-year sexual relationship, and a kidnapper and rapist whose victim was found and rescued in Nueva Ecija.
But what Ingalla considers a greater achievement is how she was able to convince the community that she served to recognize, protect and defend the rights of women and children-much as she had tried to do as a girl of 10.
COPS is a joint undertaking between the Metrobank Foundation, the Rotary Club of New Manila-East and PSBank with the Philippine National Police (PNP) to identify gallant men and women in the police force who are able to work with the community to prevent and solve crime.
"It is through COPS that we give honor to the outstanding members of the PNP who have worked together with their communities in crime solution and prevention," said Metrobank Foundation president Aniceto Sobrepe?a.
The eight officers who are this year's awardees received their medals and 300,000 peso (US$7,100) prize in Malaca?ang on Friday.
Ten awardees are normally chosen, but only eight qualified in 2011, out of more than 100 nominees from all over the country. The finalists went through a rigorous process, including a review of their credentials and a board interview, the organizers said.
Though Ingalla was the only female commissioned officer among the winners, two other women made it: Senior Police Officer 2 Helen de la Cruz, an investigator at the women and children's protection desk of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group-National Capital Region, and Police Officer 1 Rina Salaya, a noncommissioned officer with the police force of Maasin, Iloilo.
De la Cruz, a lawyer, resolved the case involving a South African woman who was raped by two suspects inside the San Juan City police station in 2010. Within days, a criminal case had been filed with the prosecutor's office, earning for De la Cruz praise from the South African embassy. She also played a vital role in the arrest of illegal drug traders, swindlers and pyramid scam artists.
Salaya, a mother of four, launched a PNP program called "Pulis Ko, Teacher Ko" (My Policeman, My Teacher), which brought the local police to the town's schools, teaching them the values of "patriotism, children's rights and the importance of becoming law-abiding citizens."
A policewoman for 27 years, Ingalla said women had come a long way in the service, but there was still much that needed to be done, noting how the ranks are still dominated by men.
Only one in 750 of the 140,000-strong national police force is female, according to Chief Superintendent Agrimero Cruz Jr., spokesperson of the Philippine National Police.
Perfect fit
Ingalla, who has worked in operations, community relations and other police offices, said working in the women and children's protection desk was one of her hardest assignments yet but a "perfect fit" for her personality.
"It requires a lot of skill and training. You absorb all the anger and rage of the victims. You have to have an extensive knowledge of the law, psychology and the mechanisms of how to handle suspects and victims sensitively," she said.
She said her experience as a mother of two grown children (and three stepchildren) helped a lot, noting that there are differences between handling women and children victims, and even suspects who are minors as well.
"It's a very difficult job which is why a lot of women don't want to be assigned to the women and children's desk," said Ingalla, a criminology graduate of the University of Northeastern Philippines.
What she tries to do is to give everyone, both victim and suspect, "empowerment information" and show a strong but sensitive hand in handling their cases, she said.
"In the women and children's desk, we're focused on protecting the rights of the victim. You don't want the victims and their families to feel that they're being victimized again. Victims hold a lot of grievance and many feel that they are being taken advantage of because they're poor," she said.
"But at the same time, you have to make sure that the suspects do not feel that we're being unfair," Ingalla said.
More outstanding awardees
The rest of the COPS awardees are Superintendents Steve Ludan and Samuel Turla, Senior Police Officer 4 Emmanuel Isiang, Senior Police Officer 1 Manuel Padlan and Police Officer 3 Rodel Alcano.
Armed with four degrees, including law, Ludan, the budget and fiscal chief of the PNP Aviation Security Group in Baguio City, acted as chief negotiator in a police operation that took down the notorious Apeng Santos kidnap-for-ransom gang. He also dismantled an illegal drug flea market in Imus, Cavite, and neutralized robbery syndicates in the town.
Turla, a 31-year veteran at the PNP, began his long career in the force as a counterinsurgency agent, with street-level armed encounters with members of the Alex Boncayao Brigade (ABB)'s Sparrow unit and the communist New People's Army rebels collecting revolutionary taxes from rice traders. He also avenged the shooting death of a police corporal with the capture of ABB hitman Noel Perez.
Alcano led operations in Calapan City that took apart four illegal drug rings, including two clandestine laboratories found with methamphetamines amounting to 1 million peso. He also closed down a bar that was found to have employed underage girls.
Isiang, chief investigator of the Surigao del Sur's investigation and detection management section, pursued and arrested the assassins that killed Sangguniang Bayan member Valentin Campos. He also initiated "Pulong-Pulong" (public dialogues) programs to engage the community in crime prevention.
Padlan, of the traffic management section of the Antipolo City police station, played a key role in the arrest of the suspects in the assassination of Mayor Bernardo Sarayot in 2001. He also brought down alleged drug lord Bernardo Tuazon who was found in possession of seven bags of shabu and played a key role in neutralizing the Bonnet Gang, responsible for a series of armed robberies in Antipolo.
