Biliran police camp to be named after a Cabucgayan native

NAVAL, Biliran, October 21 (PIA) - After 23 years of establishment of the Biliran Police Provincial Office (BPPO) without any distinctive name like other police provincial offices in the country, soon it will have a name of its own after the joint members the BPPO's Technical Working Group (TWG) and the Provincial Advisory Council (PAC) passed Resolution No. 5 naming the police provincial camp after a Cabucgayan town native.

The BPPO Headquarters located in Barangay Larrazabal in Naval, Biliran will be named Camp Private Andres P. Dadizon as per TWG and PAC Joint Resolution No. 5.

This initiative was highlighted in the welcome message of PCol Julius M. Coyme, BPPO provincial director with the presence of the new Regional Director of the Police Regional Office 8, PBGen. Ronaldo F. De Jesus, in his visit to the BPPO on September 25, 2020.

The resolution mentioned that Private Andres P. Dadizon was a native of Cabucgayan and a World War I veteran, who commissioned himself as an enlisted man of the US Army. He died fighting with the US Army and has exhibited ultimate courage having carried the US flag over German lines to defend its sovereignty and territory against the Central Powers of Germany, Austria-Hungary and Turkey during the raging battle in France on April 6,1917.

In that battle, as pictured out in the resolution, Private Dadizon, although seriously wounded, was still able to plant the flag in front of the enemy's trenches, which display of courage bolstered the morale of his comrades, and fought the enemy fiercely until they had overrun the German position. He died on July 31, 1918 and was buried in San Francisco National Cemetery in San Francisco, California, USA.

In the 1930s, the Americans honored Private Dadizon by naming a street after him in Tacloban City and erected a statue at the compound of the former Camp Bumpus inside the present Leyte Park Hotel, the resolution mentioned.

At present, a replica of the statue of Private Dadizon can be found in Barangay Bunga in Cabucgayan after several attempts made by former Cabucgayan Mayor Andres Igano in 1980 to bring the original statue after its displacement from its original location with the construction of the Leyte Park Hotel on that same year. In 2004, the Biliran Historical and Cultural Society sent a petition to the Department of Tourism in Region VIII, seeking support for the retrieval of his original statue, the resolution stated.

The naming of the BPPO after his name is one way of giving honor and as an inspiration of the future generations to be proud of and worthy of emulation. (ldl/rsv/PIA Biliran)