By Liway C. Manantan-Yparraguirre

POZORRUBIO – It was an evening they will never forget.

Midnight of August 1, 2006, five policemen conducting mobile patrol laid down their M16 Armalite rifles and short firearms. They replaced these with a flashlight, a basin containing lukewarm water, a clean t-shirt. One of them washed his hands with warm water and alcohol.

The life-and death situation that faced them: Assisting a pregnant woman who was in full labor and about to give birth. Right there and then at the woman’s house, the policemen gave her first aid… and delivered her baby.

Chief Insp. Frankie Candelario, Pozorrubio police chief, who was on patrol with his men, PO1 Jonathan Domingo, SPO4 Eliseo Distor, PO3 Joel Jugal and PO2 Ferdinand Marinas, said he did not know why, on that night, he decided that they changed their usual for the nightly patrol of the town.

“I realized later, perhaps God guided us to an angel. It was a gift. He laid unto us an important role in the birth of a baby girl,” said the police chief who is still amazed at their unusual experience.

He said their usual route when conducting night patrol was to start at the national highway and end in the municipal road at barangay Dilan (road going to Manaoag) and back.

“I still can’t explain why I decided that drizzling evening that we start at barangay Dilan instead. Along the road, we saw a seemingly restless man walking,”Candelario said.

With the man’s suspicious bearing, and the fact that it was unusual for someone to be out in the rain on the road at 11:30 p.m., he said he instructed the policeman-driver to stop to check on the person.

“We found out that he was desperately trying to locate a tricycle or a kumadrona (traditional midwife) as his wife was about to give birth. We drove the man to the house of his parents which is five kilometers away from Poblacion. Upon seeing the woman’s condition, PO1 Domingo decided that the baby had to be delivered that very moment,” he narrated the event.

Domingo finished nursing at the University of Pangasinan in 1999. He entered the police service in 2004.

Baby Dominga (apparently named after PO1 Domingo) was born with his umbilical cord wrapped around his neck.

With the use of an sterilized scissor (being used for cleaning fish), Domingo cut Dominga’s umbilical cord.

“Only when the umbilical cord was removed from her neck did Dominga cry,” Candelario and Domingo stated.