He could be likened to the typical Filipino son or daughter who makes it good in other places and comes home with gifts for his family and/or community. Such is Gen. Prospero Noble, Jr., native son of Liloy, Zamboanga del Norte, PNP regional director of Region 4, the CALABARZON.

Last week Gen. Noble came home to Liloy to turn over the newly-completed police station of the town, a school building at the central school where he once was a pupil and a number of police patrol cars for Liloy and other neighboring towns.

“I have been with the police organization assigned in different places so that now I feel it is time I must do something for or give my share to my hometown,” he said of the projects he turned-over in Liloy. “When I came home, it was ironic that I have been in the PNP for quite sometime yet I saw my hometown did not have a presentable police station and they had no patrol cars. And when I visited my Alma Mater (Fatima Central School), the roof and wooding structures were starting to fall down. These moved me to chip in from my limited resources and solicit help from offices and my well-meaning friends,” he explained of the completed projects he turned-over.

“At least, I have done something now for my place before I will retire soon after 56 years in the service of the government,” he added. When asked by media practitioners in Dipolog on his way back to his region of assignment on what could be done with the proliferation of illegal gambling here especially “swertres,” he said the best is for the press to help call on our sense of values, help each other and help in pinpointing to the real culprits, referring to the financiers.

He also appealed to local media to help maintain the good image of our province and its two cities in terms of peace and order. He, however, lamented that our image in the national and international scene is at times tarnished with news stories with Zamboanga City as dateline though nothing of such kind happened here. On the issue of extrajudicial killings (of mediamen and activitists) reported especially in his region of assignment, he said that most if not all were results of the so-called “cleansing” operations of the CPP/NPA and it was easy as part of their propaganda to blame them on the military or police. “But the military and the police are strong as ever,” he assured.

When asked of any political plans, he said politics is not his “cup of tea” but gave his open-ended statement: “I have no ambition in politics…but I accept challenges.” Gen. Noble is the son of a retired couple public school teachers of Liloy, Mr. And Mrs. Prospero Noble, Sr., and one of two generals from Zamboanga del Norte and given recognitions. The other is Gen Yano of Sindangan. (Dipolog Chronicle, Vol.VI No.9)