Cop slain in ambush is hero to kin, PNP

CABATUAN, ILOILO — When a colleague boarded the packed six-wheel truck, PO1 Joeffel Odon stood up from where he sat somewhere in the middle, offered his seat and settled himself at the rear portion of the vehicle.

This act of courtesy to a colleague probably saved another policeman’s life, but it ended Odon’s own, his mother Evelyn said.

Odon, 31, was the lone fatality in an ambush by New People’s Army (NPA) rebels on a convoy of policemen in Barangay Bolo in Maasin town in Iloilo on Nov. 24.

He died from shrapnel and bullet wounds in the head and back after the rebels, under the NPA’s Jose Percival Estocada Command, detonated two improvised explosive devices before firing at the policemen. Ten other policemen in the two-vehicle convoy were wounded.

The policemen belonged to the 42-member unit of the Regional Public Safety Battalion on their way home after conducting an operation in Maasin.

More than a week after the ambush, Odon’s family was still trying to accept his death.

“He was a good-natured and simple person,” Evelyn said in an interview with the Inquirer during her son’s wake in Barangay Poblacion Ilawod here. “His only preoccupations were cockfighting and computer games.”

Odon’s aunt, Arlene Mainar, raised him when his parents were working in Manila. She said her nephew was respectful, especially to elders.

“He was always cracking jokes,” she said. “Our relatives and his friends loved to have him around.” He was also fond of giving each of his younger cousins P20 whenever he was in town, she said.

She knew her son’s work was dangerous but still, she was pained by his death.

“I used to tease him about getting married and having children,” Odon’s mother said.

The third of four siblings, Odon earned his criminology degree at University of Iloilo in Iloilo City. As a boy, Odon had expressed his wish to become a policeman, probably inspired by relatives who were also in the police service, his mother said.

“I respected his decision even if I knew it was dangerous,” Evelyn said.

The Philippine National Police has posthumously awarded Odon the “Medalya ng Kadakilaan (Heroism Medal).” The Regional Special Promotions, Awards and Decorations Board of the PNP in Western Visayas also passed a resolution recommending the awarding of the “Medalya ng Kabayanihan (Distinguished Conduct Medal),” the PNP’s second highest award, to Odon who was promoted to Police Officer 2 after his death.

Interior Undersecretary Eduardo Año and PNP chief, Director General Ronald dela Rosa, separately visited Odon’s wake and handed over financial and other assistance, including those coming from President Duterte, to his family.