Cagayan de Oro City – The Employees’ Compensation Commission Regional Extension Unit No. 10 (ECC-REU) awarded in July 2022, a total of ₱ 205,000.00 cash assistance to fifteen (15) survivors and beneficiaries of the Philippine C130 military plane which crashed at Brgy. Bangka, Patikul, Sulu on July 4, 2021.

As per incident report, the aircraft took off from the Laguindingan Airport in Misamis Oriental with 96 persons onboard (88 passengers and 8 pilots and crew). At 11:30am, after attempting to land at the Jolo, Sulu Airport, the aircraft overshot the runway and crashed. Initial report revealed that forty-nine military personnel died on the incident.

As of July 2022, ECC REU10 had awarded ₱40,000.00 cash assistance to four wounded-in-action (WIA) personnel while ₱165,000.00 for the eleven (11) uniformed personnel’s beneficiaries. There are still several applications received at the CDO Office and endorsed to ECC Central Office for evaluation and processing of the benefit.

Janet Sabaduquia, mother of the late PFC Bensheen Sabaduquia, said that “Malaki ang tulong na naibigay ng EC Program sa mga benepisyaryo lalo na sa pinansyal. Isa ito sa mga programa ng gobyerno na dapat pasalamatan. Maraming salamat ECC.”

Jemma Albaracin, wife of PFC Nazer Albaracin, said “Nasawi ang aking asawa kasali sa C130 plane crash. Kahit iniwan man kami ng aming mahal sa buhay, nagpapasalamat kami sa EC Program ng gobyerno dahil natutugunan pa rin yung pangangailangan namin. Maraming salamat.”

The cash assistance amounting from ₱10,000.00 to ₱15,000.00 is under the ECC Quick Response Program (QRP) which provides additional monetary benefit to qualified workers with employer-employee relationship in accordance with ECC Board Resolution No. 18-02-07, Series of 2018. This is on top of the initial benefits – sickness, disability, or death benefits, that are filed at the ECC’s administering agencies, the SSS for the private sector and GSIS for the government sector.

S. Obice – REU10