Saturday, August 04, 2007 Proud to be a full-blooded Igorot By Rhodamae M. Hernandez
HE PREFERS to stay away from the limelight, saying they are just doing their job.
"I do not want to brag on what we are doing. We are doing this for public service," Police Superintendent Joseph Bakakeo Sepulchre told Sun.Star Davao.
But if there is something that Sepulchre, who heads the Davao City Police Office Investigation and Detection Division, is really proud of, it is being a full-blooded Igorot.
"I am proud of my tribe because this is all I got. My parents came from the Mountain Provinces. Minsan nga ayaw nilang maniwala pag sinasabi ko (Others sometimes don't believe me when I say I am an Igorot)," Sepulchre said.
Born on May 4, 1969 in Baguio City, Sepulchre finished his elementary studies at Fort del Pilar Elementary School, Baguio City in 1982, his secondary education in San Jose High School in La Trinidad, Benguet in 1985. He graduated at Saint Louis University in Baguio City in 1989 with Bachelor of Arts Major in Political Science.
He joined the Philippine National Police Academy soon after and graduated in 1992. He was already a police officer when he decided to take up law, receiving his law degree from the University of Mindanao in 2004.
With all these academic foundations helping him along, Sepulchre said tin police work, one just have to know the job and do it well.
It was his police work that brought him far away from his hometown.
After he graduated from the police academy, he was assigned as a junior officer of the 1st company of the Regional Mobile Force (RMF)-Southern Mindanao where he stayed for two years.
He later became an executive officer of the RMF second company. But only after one month as executive officer he became the commanding officer of the provisional company of the RMF, then the executive officer of the RMF’s 4th.
He was also assigned as the executive officer of the Force Headquarters Support group company of the RMF and for three months, he was the executive officer of the 433 Police Mobile Force in Davao Oriental.
In 1996, he was appointed chief of police of Cateel Municipal Police Station in Davao Oriental and the chief Tactics of the Regional Special Training Unit-Southern Mindanao. He was later assigned as commanding officer of the Force Headquarters Support Group.
After two months, he was assigned as the commanding officer and at the same time the chief tactics of the 2nd Regional Mobile Group-Southern Mindanao and the Regional Special Training Unit.
From there, he became the chief of police of Sta. Cruz Municipal Police Station, serving for eight months before being appointed chief of police of the Bansalan Municipal Police Station in Bansalan, Davao del Sur.
He was then assigned as Chief of the Legal and investigation Section of the Special Task Group Mindanao Area Region and was the deputy director of the Davao City Police Office City Mobile Group for seven months.
For one year, he was the deputy precinct commander of Sta. Ana Police Station and was the chief of police of Calinan Police Station for two months.
In June 2005, he became the Group Director of City Mobile Group of the Davao City Police Office and for more than one year, he was the deputy training director of the Detach Service of the Regional Training Center before he was assigned as the chief of the Davao City Police office.
Sepulchre attended training on Philippine National Police Values and Leadership Trainers Training Course, the 74th Family Link Mental Health Education Program.
He has also attended the training on Direct Service Providers on Counseling of victims of trafficking in October 2006 and the workshop on international convention for the protection of all persons from enforced disappearance.
Sepulchre said that in any work, all that matters is the dedication one puts to the assigned tasks, and doing everything well.
Asked what he sees himself doing when he retired from the service, all he looks forward to is spending the whole time with his family.
"Actually, yan ang isa sa mga(that is one of our) predicaments namin, walang oras ang trabaho namin (our job doesn’t require fixed time). Minsan nga, five days akong di nakakauwi pag may operation kami (there was a time when I can’t go home for five days when we have operation)," Sepulchre said.
