Lapu-Lapu cop set to receive award in Camp Crame suffers stroke

AN operative of the Lapu-Lapu City Police Office (LLCPO) suffered a stroke while in Manila to receive an award from Camp Crame.

SPO2 Rodito Viovicente, a community relations officer of LLCPO, remains confined at the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of St. Luke’s Medical Center.

Viovicente was supposed to attend an awarding ceremony on Friday at Camp Crame after he was chosen as one of 10 policemen to receive the Country’s Outstanding Police Officer in Service (COPS) award in a nationwide search.

Viovicente was one of two policemen from Region 7 who was chosen to receive the award. COPS is sponsored by Metrobank Foundation.

According to Chief Supt. Louie Opus, a former chief of LLCPO now assigned at the directorial staff of Camp Crame, Viovicente was in a laundry shop Sunday night when he collapsed.

A concerned citizen brought Viovicente to a hospital near Camp Crame. The policeman was later transferred to St. Luke’s where Opus helped take care of him until Viovicente’s wife arrived.

Doctors said Viovicente suffered from acute ischemic stroke which occurs when a blood vessels are blocked by plaque or a blood clot.

Senior Supt. Rey Lyndon Lawas, chief of LLCPO, said he will bring the matter to the City Council so they could get further financial assistance for Viovicente.

Lawas said the Metrobank Foundation is shouldering the policeman’s hospitalization.

“He can talk but is unintelligible. The left side of his body had become paralyzed,” Lawas said.

Lapu-Lapu City Mayor Paz Radaza has been informed of Viovicente’s condition.

“He is a very active police officer and was involved in many community activities in Lapu-Lapu City,” Radaza said.  /CORRESPONDENT NORMAN V. MENDOZA