This week I will be telling you the struggles of one strong woman who stood as mother and father to her children yet she was able to support and send her children to school with her meager salary. Join me as we travel back in time to her difficult experience and how she single-handedly cared for her family despite being poor but living an honorable life.
Everyone in Cebu PPO knows NUP Maria Dahlia Arnibal, a permanent fixture and your go to person if you need documents from the Regional Office or to send one in the offices of PRO7.
NUP Maria Dahlia Arnibal belonged to a large family, they were sixteen siblings all in all, her father a gasoline boy struggled to provide for the family with her mother left to care for their children. At 11 years old, NUP Arnibal learned the hard realities in life. Barely reaching puberty, she started working in a Videohaus to support herself and her family until the closure of the establishment. When she was 18, she transferred working in a motor parts shop.
All the while she managed to study while working and finished high school in Abellana National High School.
NUP Arnibal knew work before she even understood the intricacies of life. She worked as a barangay tanod as a means to earn money and to support her own struggling family.
A sad fact, NUP Arnibal was left with her four children by her husband. Despite all this, she learned to survive, she experienced accepting laundry from neighbors and friends. She swallowed her pride just to feed her children and send them school.
In 2000, she was employed as a striker in PRO7, for five years she endured working as an all-around errand woman for everyone in the office.
Luckily, in 2005 the stars were all in favor and aligned for NUP Arnibal when she applied and got accepted to the PNP as a Non-Uniformed Personnel.
With a salary of P5,000.00 she carried the responsibilities of her family. I cannot imagine how she survived with this earning yet she accepted odd jobs to support the needs of her children.
NUP Maria Dahlia Arnibal sufferd a stroke several times with all the emotional burden that she carried but she cannot be easily defeated because she is a strong woman and her children depended on her. Her workmates in the Provincial Administrative and Resource Management Unit (PARMU) helped her financially whenever she gets sick, they all understood her predicament.
In all her problems she lifts it all up to God to guide her and to send her angels in the guise of friends to help solve her problems.
NUP Maria Dahlia Arnibal is a diligent worker despite her ailments, she remains an example to all her juniors as well the seniors to work hard and never become jaded in the service.
If you happen to pass by NUP Maria Dahlia Arnibal in the hallways of PRO7 and Cebu PPO, give her a smile and appreciate all the things that she does for us.
NUP Arnibal has this to say to everyone in the service “No matter the position, everyone contributes to the organization. Give it your best.”
In 2018, her husband came back after 18 years of absence, now they are learning to live together with everyone’s support. Her daughter who is working in a law enforcement agency is her partner and counterpart in carrying the burdens of family life.
Let us not surrender and fight on, like how NUP Dahlia Arnibal faced her problems head on! Padayun sa pakigbisog, Mabuhi ka!
Written by: NUP Merlie A. Dacunos
Source: Cebu Police Provincial Office
