Police Officer Erlinda Gagaoin Carries Vision-impaired Old Woman in La Union
In this era, you don’t need to die to become a hero.
Tubao, La Union – A photo of a cop carrying a vision-impaired elderly woman in the province of Ilocos is making the rounds online. The picture of Senior Police Officer 3 (SPO3) Erlinda Gagaoin has gone viral after it was posted by the Philippine National Police (PNP) on its Facebook page.
SPO3 Gagaoin, Head of Women and Children’s Protection Desk, immediately earned praises from thousands of internet and Facebook users right after her photo was made public through the famous networking site. According to news reports, the lady cop decided to carry the old woman because she thought that it would be a huge challenge for the vision-impaired senior citizen to walk to her house all alone. The police was also concerned because the woman, who was later identified as Rebecca Bataler, needs to walk on the muddy road before she could reach her house.
Erlinda Gagaoin reportedly ferried the old woman and moved her all the way to Bataler’s home, which was about 150 meters from the location where she picked up Rebecca. The cop visited the elderly woman when she was featured by a certain local media in the Philippines. In the report, Rebecca said that she would never forget the kindness of SPO3 Gagaoin.
Meanwhile, the colleagues of the police woman mentioned that they were not surprised by the kindness of SPO3 Gagaoin. According to police inspector Mark Ryan Taminaya, the lady police officer has always been observed randomly helping less fortunate people in the area from the time she joined the team.
On the other hand, the humble police officer was very thankful for the praises she received from the netizens. She also stressed to the journalists that all cops should perform their jobs regardless if a higher officer is around or not.
As of writing, the photo showing SPO3 Erlinda Gagaoin carrying the old woman earned 43,633 “likes” and has been shared 1, 592 times by Facebook users.
Note: SPO3 Erlinda Gagaoin was not aware that someone took a picture while she was carrying the old woman.