Cowboy Cop

A moment of inspiration led Dennis S. Ebsolo to form a mounted police force to fight crime and restore peace.

- Margie T. Logarta

Police Senior Inspector Dennis S. Ebsolo is accompanied by danger and death on a daily basis—twin companions he has learned to live with during his 20 years in the service.

“It’s part of my job,” says one of Metrobank Foundation’s 10 Outstanding Filipinos for 2018. “Marami akong nasagasaan in my work. I’ve made lots of enemies. That’s why I usually bring a gun with me.”

The commitment to his community and his country, however, outweighs this constant concern about life’s ephemerality. Rather, Dennis seeks to make the time given to him meaningful by finding ways to bring policemen and the public closer in understanding and bridge the yawning gap in perception.

AN EARNEST START

A native of Butuan, Agusan del Norte, Dennis saw nobility in the job his uncle and a neighbor held as members of their local police force. The boy, whose father was an employee in a plywood company and whose mother was a vendor at a local school, marveled at the policemen, saying, “they always seemed to be on duty, on call 24/7.” Inspired, Dennis moved to bustling Cagayan de Oro to earn bachelor's and master’s degrees in criminology from the Cagayan de Oro College, and later, a doctorate in criminology from Manila’s Philippine College of Criminology, even receiving a meritissimus award for his dissertation that tackled the implications of dysfunctional families among the members of the Philippine National Police (PNP).