God bless these cops

The homily delivered by Pastor Larry Pabiona at last Sunday’s evening worship service at Greenhills Christian Fellowship reminded, or taught, us about how Mary teaches us about true worship as gleaned from Luke 1:46-55. The pastor, himself a story of wonder, was once a successful surgeon who decided to become a church minister, said that The Magnificat, which we know is Mary’s song expressing her wonder of her God’s choice of bearing the baby Jesus, is the longest and most comprehensive statement made by Mary in the Bible, and so, said Pastor Pabiona, “it is worth studying when we want to learn the truth about Christmas worship.”

Mary sings, “My soul glorifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior.” This shows her wonderment over her role, a bondservant though she is. Pastor Pabiona asked, what then should our attitude be of worship? “A deep heartfelt inner spring of intense gratitude and joy that bursts forth habitually from a humble soul who knows its utter unworthiness.” (This a quote from J. F. Macarthur Jr.)

Mary bursts out, “From now on all generations will call me blessed, for the Mighty One has done great things for me — holy is His name.”

Pabiona challenged the worshippers: “What is the spirit of Christmas? In a word, Worship . . . nothing more and nothing less. But it demands the right Recipient above all things, because worship can be misdirected, even by well-meaning people. May the words of Christ’s own mother, whom God used to bring Christ into this world, show us the way.”

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Towards the end of the pastor’s homily, a well-applauded testimony was delivered by Col. Cesar Hawthorne R. Binag CEO VI, police senior superintendent of the Philippine National Police. He spoke about what a group of officers is doing to reform the public image of the police establishment. He said the peaceful conduct of the May 10, 2010 election was partly brought about by careful monitoring by the police. The role of the PNP in that election is the subject of a book the colonel is about to finish writing.

The public had long have an image of the PNP as lacking in credibility and engaged in corruption. In 1993, former President Fidel V. Ramos, forced 40 officials, superintendents and deputy directors to resign as part of the so-called police moral problem.

Four young captains went into a huddle. They agreed with the president’s intention to institute reforms. But theydid not like the thought that those generals who dedicated their lives to the police service would be dismissed perfunctorily. Capt. Cesar Binag, one of the four police senior inspectors, told me after the GCF worship service.

Like Binag, police senior inspectors, Benigno Durana, M.O. Aplasta and Lyndon Cubos, were all Philippine Military Academy graduates. They had meetings with Boy Manuel, missionary with the Campus Crusade for Christ, who had been looking for PMA graduates to help them with life-changing strategies. Binag said, “We wanted a group to do the right thing.” I asked, what right thing? “We observed, we heard so much talk about corruption, about the lack of credibility in the service, that’s why President Ramos had to fire officers.” His group wanted to avoid the pits senior officers had fallen into, and this they could do by putting God in every policeman’s heart.

With Boy Manuel as their facilitator, they met once a week at Boy’s house or at a McDonald’s store, for Bible study and to review books on leadership (the books included “Finishing Strong”by Steve Farrar; “Temptations Men Face” and “Seven Habits of Highly Effective People” by Stephen Covey). “Our strength was conducting trainings on motivational and leadership management,” said Binag.

Word about the reforming group’s intention spread, and in no time, many officers joined them, seeing the group as “a refuge group.” “Our strength was conducting trainings on motivational and leadership management.”

Who could tell a cop to walk the strait and narrow path but a fellow cop? When some of them made mistakes, or did unseemly things like going to bars, “we confronted them, but with love,” said Binag. Believing in right relationships, spouses and families are now part of the organization.

The group, called Christian Officers’ Reform the Police Movement (CORPM), was registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission in 2000.

“Our battle cry is ‘God in every Cop.’ And our mission is to help build a God-centered, service-oriented and family-based Philippine National Police,” said Binag.

The CORPM has two major programs. First, My Brother’s Keepers, set up in 1999, adopts young graduates of the Philippine National Police Academy in Cavite to be living in the ways of the Lord; some 300 graduates are now assigned in different areas of the country.  

People used to tease them about there being no building two years after the groundbreaking ceremonies for the CORPM’ training center had no less than President Ramos as guest of honor. The reformed officers’ prayer was answered whenCitiland president Andrew Yuson donated funds for a building.

The second major project, called Bless Our Cops (BOC), begun in 2011, challenges church leaders to pray for the police,instead of just criticizing them. The dream is to have one local church cover a police station to establish good relations with the staff and talk about life changes. So far, the movement has covered churches in 15 regions; the goal is to cover all 1,526 stations in the country.

There are many spiritual groups doing the same spiritual purpose. Binag says the prayer is for all these Christian groups to form a network for coordination to stop the impression of their being in competition.

In 2005, the PNP, in coordination with UNDP, set up an Integrated Transformation Program, and tapped CORPM organizers Durano, Cubos and Binag to organize the Center for Police Strategy Management.

As if working for the right way were not enough, the CORPM organizers pursued post-degree courses. Aplasta andBinag finished masters degrees in development management at the Asian Institute of Management, Durano a masters inpublic ad at the University of the Philippines. Cubos became a lawyer. Durano and Binag also were given scholarships in public administration at the John F. Kennedy School of Leadership at Harvard University.

Cesar, one of seven children, grew up in a Christ-centered family that attended the United Church of Christ in the Philippines in Taguig.His dream was to become a missionary, and he distributed candies and played the guitar during church functions. His father was a master sergeant in the Philippine Army, and told his son Cesar to enroll instead at the PMA where he would not have to pay for school expenses.

A new assignment ‑ rather a blessing — forCesar is that he was recently appointed to be Deputy Police Commissioner of the United Nations Mission in Liberia. We are sure that in his new post, or wherever he is assigned, he will help influence people to do “the right thing.”

Colonel Binag asked his family to join him on the GCF stage as he talked about the CORPM and COP story. There was his wife, Agnes, a dentist, and sons Zark, a senior Inter- Cultural Studies student at Messiah College; Cesar Hawthorne Jr., a sophomore political science student at the Ateneo de Manila University; Czar Robert, a junior at the GF International Christian School, where the youngest boy, Paul, is a sophomore. Paul, said the colonel, “I would like to become a cadet.”

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