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.