A retired colonel in the Philippine Army, and a superintendent police officer are this year’s two outstanding alumni awardees of Negros Oriental State University and the NORSU Alumni Association.
The two outstanding alumni are Col. Jose M. Valencia in the field of Military and Community Service and SPO1 Edilberto B. Euraoba III, in the field of Police and Community Service.
Col. Valencia graduated 4th honorable mention from the then East Visayan School of Arts & Trades (EVSAT) in 1961. SPO1 Euraoba graduated with an Associate in Industrial Technology in 1987, and a BS in Industrial Education in 1991 from the Central Visayas Polytechnic College, the former name of NORSU before it became a state university.
In 1967, entering government service after college graduation, Valencia started as a community development officer under the Presidential Assistance for Community Development program, and then in 1972, became a Negros Oriental provincial cooperatives officer under the Cooperatives Administration Office, in the latter capacity, he participated in an electrification project feasibility study, the important result of which was the creation of the Negros Oriental Electric Cooperative.
Called to active military service in 1973, his civilian experience placed him in good standing, first as chief of the Psychological Operations branch of the Philippine Army Civil Relations Service, and then to higher post, until he served as Battalion Commander, first of the 7th and then of the 12th Regional Community Defense Group; and finally, as deputy commander of the Army Reserve Command, which he held till his retirement in 2003.
SPO1 Euraboa’s life career took definite shape in 1996, when after a brief service with an iron steel corporation, he joined the Philippine National Police. Topping his class of 430 police cadets, he began as police officer I in 1997 in the intelligence operations of the Regional Mobile Group 7. Undergoing some 14 various police training programs while studying law, he rose through the ranks, becoming Senior Police Officer I by 2011 and public information officer of the Negros Oriental Provincial Office.
He organized in 2009 a province-wide-school-based, plastic-trash collection program; a provincial barangay-based Kabataan para sa Kapayapaan program; a barangay-based scholarship program for poor but deserving students, among others. He initiated marriage-counseling program for police families, and the religious-based “peace and harmony zones” in Negros Oriental.
Euraoba’s impressive excellence in service is amply attested to by a host of awards, with the most prestigious police award, the Metrobank Foundation Inc. 2010 Country’s Outstanding Policeman in Service (COPS) award, which was coupled with the PNP Chief Medalya ng Katangi-tanging Gawa.
