EIGHT new police women from the Mandaue City Police Office (MCPO) showed off their skills on Thursday, March 2, 2023, after completing their training as new members of the city’s Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) team.
The eight police women showed off their new skills during an activity on Thursday at the MCPO headquarters in line with the yearly celebration of Women’s Month.
Capt. Lilibeth Arche, head of the MCPO’s Women and Children Protection Desk, said the activity aimed to train their police women to showcase their skills.
Arche said the ladies were newly trained police under MCPO’s City Mobile Force Operative (CMFO).
The eight will also present their skills during an activity at the Police Regional Office Central Visayas (PRO 7) headquarters at Camp Sergio Osmeña in Cebu City on Monday, March 6.
Lt. Gerson Rosende, the chief of the MCPO’s SWAT team, said the eight police officers trained for two days, yet he was amazed at how snappy they were in chasing the suspects and handling their rifles.
Rosende said that during the time of then MCPO Director Col. Ronald Bulalacao, they initially created an all-female SWAT team. However, the idea never materialized as most of its members got reassigned while some underwent schooling for promotional purposes.
Rosende said he hopes that the current MCPO director, Col. Jeffrey Caballes, would support his plan to create an all-female SWAT team as this could become a big help to MCPO’s campaign against criminality.
Patrolwoman Wilfreda Cordero, one of the eight new SWAT team members, said she was grateful for the opportunity to join MCPO’s most elite police team.
Cordero, 26, said she has learned a lot from her two-day training and hopes to apply them.