KIDAPAWAN CITY (MindaNews/04 October) – Catholic police officers in North Cotabato received last Friday red rosaries from their provincial director, Senior Supt. Cornelio Salinas.
Salinas said a rosary is a stronger “weapon” compared to assault rifles or automatic weapons.
The official distributed the red rosaries to police officers from this city and the province’s 17 towns who attended the blessing and inauguration of the Our Lady of Fatima Grotto inside the headquarters of the North Cotabato provincial police office.
Senior Insp. Joyce Birrey, spokesperson for the provincial police, said Salinas has been saved from harm many times by his red rosary.
One incident Salinas could not forget happened in the late 1980s when he was then a young chief of police in a town in Luzon.
He said he was carrying his assault rifle when armed men flagged down the bus he was riding. The armed men spotted him but did not fire at him. At that time, he recalled, he was carrying his red rosary and was praying for Virgin Mary’s protection.
Since then it has become his devotion to share his story about the red rosary to his men.
Salinas has already distributed some 600 red rosaries to Catholic police officers in North Cotabato since he started his job as the provincial director in May.
“It has been Col. Salinas’s devotion to distribute red rosary to his men. When he started his job here at the province, the first two things that he did was first, distribute red rosaries to Catholic cops, and second, construct a grotto inside the headquarters,” said Birrey.
It was only last month that the construction of the grotto was completed.
During the inauguration of the grotto on Friday, Salinas again distributed hundreds of red rosaries to Catholic cops.
One of those who received the rosary was Supt. Alex Tagum, head of the Cotabato Provincial Police Public Safety Company, who said that it was his first time to receive a different “weapon” from his superior. (Malu Cadelina Manar/MindaNews)
