In September 2006, Engineer Beltranico Balcena, Jr. was at the point of giving up when he met a vehicular accident whichcompletely fractured the bone of his right arm. He underwent surgery wherein a metal implant was placed on his arm. He immediately lost his job as a management trainee in an automobile company after the saidincident.
That was the lowest point of his life. As a breadwinner, he had no idea where to get money for his family’s sustenance. His children were all still studying. He needed to pick up the pieces of his life after the accident but had no idea how. He was about to give up when ECC suddenly came to his life.
Balcena received a lump sum pension of P21,010.50 or P3001.50 monthly pension for 7 monthsas his EC partial permanent disability benefit and P575carer’s allowance for 7 months. His wife was granted an entrepreneurial skills seminar and his 3 kids were also included in the Special Program for Employment of Students (SPES) of the ECC during the summer of 2013, 2014 and 2015.
Balcena recalled that the lump sum pension he received from ECC was his saving grace. He used it to put up a sari-sari store for him to have income while he was still recuperating from the surgery. It was the only store in their neighborhood at that time. His store generated daily gross sales of P10,000 at that time.
Two years after the accident, he was able to get a new job in a construction company, and then got an overseas employment contract. Just recently, he took the board examinations for Civil Engineering and passed it. He is now a Civil Engineer in a company based in Papua New Guinea. Though he now earns a 6-digit monthlysalary, he still visits the ECC from time to time whenever he is here in the Philippines.
“ECC will always be in my heart. I will never forget how ECC helped me restore my life. From the bottom of my heart, I express my gratitude to the ECC,” Balcena remarked.