Ogio launches trust fund

 AN education trust fund for children whose police parents die on duty was launched last Friday night in Port Moresby. 

The Police Legacy Commandant’s Scholarship Trust fund was launched by Governor-General Sir Michael Ogio, who was also made patron of the not-for-profit association.

According to a statement by Police Legacy president and former police commissioner Ila Geno, the establishment of the education trust fund provided an ideal beginning for it to collect details such as eligibility of dependents of the deceased.

“As knowledge of Police Legacy’s existence grows within the broader community, so will knowledge of the association’s goals and services spread throughout the constabulary,” he said.

“This may be expected to increase the number of prospective beneficiaries because up to now the association has not provided any scholarship support to any deceased’s dependants since its establishment 25 years ago.”

During the launch at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Port Moresby, Geno also paid tribute to a fallen comrade, Constable Joseph Tangeria who was killed during the Bougainville crisis on March 1, 1990, in the Buka Passage.

“Tonight, we are gathered to honour late Constable Joseph Tangeria, a young Huli man from Paijaka Village, Tari in Hela Province,” Geno said.

“We have had plenty of time to mourn his passing and the manner of his passing, since he was killed, at lunchtime on  March 1, 1991, resisting elements of the BRA insurgency at Buka Passage, in the then North Solomons Province, now Bougainville Autonomous Region, who, sadly too, did not survive the day in that unfortunate confrontation.”

Geno said Tangeria did not have any children who would benefit from the education trust fund.  He was only engaged to a Buka woman at the time of his death.

“For his unselfish devotion to duty, and gallantry of the highest order, Constable Tangeria was posthumously awarded the Conspicuous Gallantry Medal, the second highest award for bravery in the face of the enemy, next to the Victoria Cross, in the Queens Honours List in 2003,” he said.