‘I’ll guard pa from bad people’

After his father survived a  shoot-out with robbers who hit  Robinsons Place mall in Fuente Osmeña, Cebu City, 4-year-old Michael Roy Ceniza takes every chance he gets to accompany his  policeman-father wherever he goes out.

Last Friday, the boy  went with   PO1 Roy Ceniza to the Cebu CIty Police Office (CCPO) to execute an affidavit on the incident.

“I’ll guard my father from the bad people,” the boy said.

“Daddy, those bad people should be shot and jailed,” the elder Ceniza quoted his son as saying.

The boy  wants to become a policemen when he grows up, a plan that was   reinforced when he saw his father confined in a hospital with a gunshot wound in his thigh.

Michael John said he didn’t want his father to  continue  working in law enforcement because it was too dangerous.

But Ceniza said he won’t resign anytime soon.

“I love this work,” he told Cebu Daily News.

Ceniza said he explained the nature of his job to his son, who now accompanies him if he has no classes. At the police homicide section, Michael Roy held on to his father’s hand.

PO1 Ceniza was recently discharged from the hospital  and is on  leave  to completely recover from his injury.

His colleague PO1 Elrich Jourdan Catacutan was shot in the  right chest during the shoot-out. Both were given the  Medalya Ng Sugatang Magiting, the highest medal award for a wounded policeman.

Three of the robbery suspects identified as Nelson Magsanay, Antonio Adelan and Mario Dapitan were killed in the shoot-out.

The robbers grabbed a money bag of P1.2 million from a ChinaBank teller who was delivering the cash to a client. The teller and a private security guard who disembarked from an armored van were shot. The guard was killed.