We already had a car when we lived inside Crame which Pat and I used for shopping. Hence, Tony did not resume his selling “toron” as before.
My transfer from Muñoz to Crame made me a Constabulary officer from an Army officer as my branch of military service. I became a “Constaboy” again! (Now — 1994 — the PC is called National Police Force or NPF.)
Initially I was assigned as Law Instructor in the P.C. School in Crame, teaching officers and enlisted men law subjects, Constabulary Duties, and Criminology. There was a Provincial Commanders Course where our students were from Majors up to Lieutenant Colonels. I was then only a Captain teaching older and higher ranking officers. I was their TACTICAL OFFICER charged with their discipline and administration. A former boss of mine — who at the time had been Captain Rigalino Garcia, Adm. O., A-2, MPC(PA), when I was M/Sgt. Jose Sibayan, Chief Clerk, G-2, MPC(PA) — was one of our Provincial Commander student officers. On weekends every officer wanting to go on Pass came to get my approval on their Request for Pass form. They had to salute me, saying: Request for Pass, Sir? After my approving and handing them their Pass, they again said: THANK YOU, SIR! Capt. Garcia, who was then a Major, also did the same. And we would just smile at each other as we recalled our past years together. He became a General later on.
One night, as tactical officer, I checked them one by one after taps to be sure they were in bed. I noticed that Major Rodriguez (who was an enlisted man like me before he became an officer, and we were friends) was not in his bed. I got inside his mosquito net and fell down to sleep. Major Rodriguez is a GIANT of a man.
Major Pingol woke up to go to the toilet and noticed that Major Rodriguez had become very small in size. He lifted up the mosquito net to investigate, and I greeted him. We just laughed together when he said: “I thought Rodriguez has shrunk in size!” Major Pingol and I played tennis together and he later on became Chief of Police in Baguio. Maj. Rodriguez as Provincial Commander, Nueva Vizcaya, P.C., filled up my car tank full of gas when I passed by Bayombong in 1955.
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