COTABATO CITY–Newly-commissioned Police Inspector Macdum Darping Enca, the valedictorian of this year’s graduates of the Philippine National Police Academy, should be emulated and recognized for giving this city a “lifetime honor,” Mayor Cynthia Guiani Sayadi said.
“I can’t explain how happy we Cotabatenios are,” Sayadi said Monday night after the city government and local officials tendered a testimonial dinner for Enca, a native of this city.
“He put Cotabato City on the map of excellent and good people,” Sayadi said of Enca, valedictorian of PNPA Masidlak Class of 2017.
A motorcade around town preceded the recognition night, where Enca got a warm welcome from classmates, teachers, relatives, and even strangers.
Engineer Yacobnor Enca is perhaps the happiest father now. “People I have not seen since birth are recognizing me for having a brilliant child in Macdum,” he said.
“I am very popular now, greetings keep coming even days after the graduation ceremonies,” he said. “I am very proud, this is unprecedented.”
Yacobnor said he dreamed of his son becoming an Islamic preacher, not a police officer. “But I believe in destiny, so this is his destiny,” he said.
“I was surprised,” Macdum said of the welcoming local officials and police officers as he got off the plane Monday afternoon from Manila.
“I am not used to it,” he said at the Cotabato airport. “Every time I returned home, only my parents welcomed me. Now almost everybody recognizes me.”
From the airport, a motorcade toured Enca around the city, ending at the Peoples Palace (City Hall) for a meeting with Mayor Sayadi.
To the people of Cotabato City, Enca advised that fear should not prevent anybody to excel. “Dare, nothing will happen if we allow ourselves to be taken by fear, that we cannot make it,” he said.
“Anybody can do what I have achieved, I do not have the monopoly of success in life. You, too, can succeed,” he told his townmates.
Mayor Shameem Mastura of Sultan Kudarat, Maguindanao also cited Enca for graduating as PNPA valedictorian. Enca earlier graduated as a top student of the Sultan Kudarat Islamic Academy in that town.
