DESPITE the apparent breakdown of discipline in the lower ranks of the Philippine National Police (PNP), as no less than Director General Oscar Albayalde admits, the organization is still not wanting of heroes.
In the PNP’s unwritten gallery of heroes, one, however, stands out. He is Senior Inspector Dennis Ebsolo, the current chief of police of Villanueva Police Station in Misamis Oriental, and he is legendary.
Ebsolo pioneered in setting up the mounted patrol in 2015 as chief of police of Station 8 of the Cagayan de Oro Police, a successful tack that is yet to be officially recognized by the national police leadership.
While the police patrol on horseback may seem like a throwback to the days of the cowboys for the modern-day PNP—with its modern vehicles and other technology-driven equipment in its anticriminality campaign—it has worked excellently in the unforgiving terrain of Misamis Oriental.
Honor from Metrobank
In fact, the success of Ebsolo’s legendary policing technique was even recognized by the Metrobank Foundation, which adjudged him as one of its 10 Outstanding Filipinos for this year.
The foundation tagged him as Misamis Oriental’s “Horse-Mounted Cop.”
The 42-year-old Ebsolo joined the PNP in 1998 as a police officer 1, the lowest rank in the PNP, and was assigned with the Regional Mobile Group 10. In 2010 he was promoted to the rank of inspector as a lateral entry.
In 2015 or five years later, he was tasked to head the Station 8 in Cagayan de Oro City, a designation he initially saw both as a promotion and a nightmare, since his coverage area sits at the tri-boundaries of Cagayan de Oro, Bukidnon and Lanao del Sur.
In Bukidnon, there was this problem of rebel insurgency, while Lanao del Sur is beset by terrorism, lawlessness and the Moro conflict.
Ebsolo’s newly found kingdom, which also includes 12 hinterland barangays, covers a land area of 12 million hectares where the word “government” seems not to exist.
The area, which is a combination of a marshland, and hilly and virgin forests, breeds and harbors criminals. It spawns crimes of all sorts, including illegal mining and illegal logging. There are also clan wars, which could be violent.
Where angels fear to tread
“These barangays are almost unreachable, they could not be reached by patrols. The road condition is really very poor,” Ebsolo said of the areas under his jurisdiction.
Drawn against the puzzle of establishing even just a semblance of police existence in the barangays, the police chief bought a motorcycle on his own for his patrol.
Later, he also encouraged his men to buy a motorcycle on their own for the patrol, but with Ebsolo shouldering their gasoline requirement.
Again, the barangays are virtually nonexistent. If under extreme cases any of their residents needed to go to the city, he has to pay P1,000 just to emerge from the village on a hired motorcycle, and the amount is only for a one-way travel.
“Regardless of the situation, the residents just prefer to remain inside their barangays,” Ebsolo said.
If crimes are committed, they are not reported to the authorities since no one dares to come out of their villages just for this purpose, as they even run the risk of being ambushed along the way.
“There are even areas where the local residents and indigenous people are afraid of coming out of their villages because there are bandits who would kill them,” Ebsolo said.
“These groups of bandits really wanted to control and maintain their hold over the areas,” he said.
The police chief remembers that even with their motorcycles, there were still barangays that they could not reach and cover for their patrol, prompting him to think of uncanny ways to reach the villages.
This led him to entertain the idea of riding horses in their patrols.
“There are some residents who are using horses, and this gave me the idea. I asked around for the cost and I was given the amount of P90,000 for a horse that is not [of] a high breed, riding equipment included,” Ebsolo said.
The police chief approached the local government of Cagayan de Oro through a councilor for possible assistance, but his request was not acted upon.
Some members of nongovernment organizations then agreed to provide horse-riding training for members of the Station 8 for free.
As he was intent on establishing police presence in the isolated barangays, Ebsolo reached out to other stakeholders, who chipped in and gave members of the police station at least four horses.
“Some had teased us because we were supposed to be using vehicles and not horses in this modern age. But the area is mountainous,” he said.
As it is, the mounted patrol even drew the policemen one step backward since they were already using motorcycles.
So much accomplished
But with the “policemen on horses” led by Ebsolo, members of Station 8 accomplished so much in establishing peace and order in the 12 barangays and in giving villagers a glimpse or taste of government.
“Because of the program, crimes decreased and their occurrence is no longer treated as normal by the local residents. Clan wars have stopped and the barangays have stopped harboring areas for criminals and wanted persons,” the police chief said.
Ebsolo and his men arrested a total of 75 wanted persons, a number of whom had been on Cagayan de Oro’s list of wanted persons for a long time.
Under Ebsolo, Station 8 recorded the highest number of buy-bust operations in its history, seizing millions worth of illegal drugs and arresting 83 drug suspects, including some high-value targets.
Likewise, loose firearms and explosives were confiscated and even illegal loggers have stopped their operations.
“Even marijuana plantations were cleared,” Ebsolo said.
The police chief also mobilized the Barangay Peacekeeping Action Team and the Barangay Intelligence Network.
For all of his feats, the police chief, however, never received any recognition from the leadership of the PNP.
When the mounted patrol was first implemented, the villagers were not even receptive; at one point, Ebsolo and his men were even ambushed but luckily survived.
Later, however, the policemen were able to develop a good relationship with the villagers.
Moving forward, Ebsolo told the BusinessMirror that the access to some of the barangays has been developed and in time, while it may diminish the romantic image of the mounted police, he hopes the villages would be so well-connected by decent roads there will no longer be any need for the cop on horseback.