Lala is our youngest sister in the brood of three – disciplined, driven and courageous. She has faced various emotional and social challenges when she was growing up due to various reasons affecting our family because she was the one present in the province and she was the one who gets to face the public because of the scandal that my family faced during that time in our small town. But that did not stop her to strive more in reaching her dream of becoming a policewoman. She took criminology as a course and passed the licensure examination – all the pre-requisite to enter the Philippine National Police, and she is determined to be part of the prestigious institution. But the circumstances have not been very accommodating with her, when she was about to go to the University, she applying for the Philippine National Police Academy but was rejected even before she can take the nationwide admission test. The Philippine Military Academy allowed her to take the test but then technically she was not qualified. The reason is her Height.

She is only 5’ and according to the standard measurement used by both institutions she is only 4’11” – but apart from that, she has a perfect health condition, good academic record and good moral character. She has already undergone preliminary training because somebody vouched for her so she can be admitted, but resulted to nothing. Another opportunity came, a friend of a relative tried to help her get into the Special Action Force of Philippine National Police only to learn that Height waiver is another issue. We even considered to pay for the height waiver but decided not to pursue because it is not the legal way and there is no assurance that she will even be considered to enter. There is another way to secure height waiver, if a certification will be issued to her being a member of indigenous community, but impossible to happen because our lineage is of Spanish and Chinese descent.

Until after months, she decided to set aside her dreams and planned on taking Law. She said, she will see if someday she still want to be a part of the institution, she will try to apply maybe in another department that suits her new qualification.