“I never thought I could forgive, but truly forgiveness comes when you love the most.” These are the words of our featured PNCO of the week. “When you lost the trust, and yet you learned to forgive, it is the highest form of love”. Selfless and encompassing.
This week I have the opportunity to tell the story of a strong woman who weathered the storms in her life, fell down yet rose up to face the challenges and was able to say “I conquered my problems and I won”.
Let us hear and read the story of PCMS Rosalie Olmillo Lirasan of how she hurdled the greatest storm in her life.
“My life was difficult; I grew-up knowing that education can redeem you from poverty. This was the life lesson that my parents told us and ingrained in our brains. They only finished Grade 4 and they had to struggle as factory workers to provide for the family. We are four siblings but my parents worked their ass off to send us all to school”.
PCMS Lirasan hails from Barangay Calumpang, Oslob, Cebu but had to move to Praridel, Bulacan with her family to find greener pastures.
“Growing-up I never knew that there is a better life, I just thought that it was the normal thing to struggle. Aside from working in the factory, my mother has to raise and sell pigs as a sideline to provide for us and send us to school. We had a happy childhood, we played all day in the sun and bathed in the sea. Ours was a different generation, no cellphones but we had connections, we talked, we laughed and we fight. At the end of the day, we were still friends.”
“When it was time for me to go to college, I came back to Cebu and enrolled in the University of Cebu taking up Bachelor of Secondary Education Major in General Science.” She graduated in 1997.
The four siblings succeeded in college, one is living and working in Manila, her older brother, a Mettalurgical Engineer as an OFW and his younger brother a Seafarer.
Sadly, their parents were not able to enjoy the fruits of their labor since they died of illnesses. They were taken back by the Almighty in 2000 and 2003 due to cardiac arrest and thyroid cancer respectively.
Prior to working in the PNP, PCMS Lirasan was employed as a teacher in St. Mary’s Academy Oslob from 1997- 2000 and a Barangay Secretary from 2002- 2003.
In December 16, 2003 she entered in the PNP service, for 18 years she was assigned in Oslob Police Station. Now, she is assigned in Santander Police Station a town adjacent to her hometown where she can go home daily to attend to her family.
In all her struggles as a police officer, her husband has to sacrifice himself for the family. He has to stay behind rearing the kids and when PCMS Lirasan had to go on schooling he took care of the family. According to PCMS Liraran she is most thankful to her husband who didn’t mind looking after their kids. Her husband is a BSMARE graduate but had to take a setback in order for his wife to prosper in her career.
Along with her husband, they also took care of her grandmother and her mother’s siblings. Looking back, she is grateful for her husband’s effort in cooking food, washing the clothes and served as a caregiver to his grandmother and the siblings of her mother who are blind with special needs.
When their marriage was tested in 2021, she thought the world ended but their love endured. Their trials only proved that love truly withstood the test of time.
Currently, PCMS Lirasan works as a Women and Children Protection Desk (WCPD) in-charge in Santander Police Station. She painstakingly takes care of the oppressed, guiding and counseling kids and mothers in their challenged life.
Daghang salamat PCMS Rosallie Olmillo Lirasan for sharing your life story with us, we hope that our followers will be able to reflect and take the life lessons to heart. Padayun lang, Mabuhi ka!
Written by: NUP Merlie A. Dacunos
Source: Cebu Police Provincial Office
