Early in the morning of November 14, 2013, Ana Liza De Guzman rode a bus from Guadalupe, Makati City to go to her work in Air Freight 2100 in Paranaque City and seated on the first row from the door of the bus.

Because she woke up early, she was planning to take a nap while on the road. However, she noticed that the speed of the bus was too fast.

De Guzman started feeling restless.

Upon passing Pasay Road along EDSA, she observed that the bus avoided a motorcycle bike, eventually the bus lost its brakes and it started swerving.

De Guzman saw some people standing on a waiting shed and thought that they might get rammed by the bus.

“Everything happened so fast,” De Guzman said.

All she can remember is that there were so many bloodstains on the street as she was left hanging on the windshield of the bus.

“From the windshield, I was able to stand up and sit on the sidewalk,” De Guzman narrated.

“I cannot hear anything, but the place was frenzied. So many blood all over the place. It was like a movie scene,” she added.

She was thankful that she was not injured, she thought. However, when she was in the hospital and was about to stand up, she could no longer bend her knee.

“It was painful, I was screaming for help,” De Guzman recounted.

It turned out, her left knee was dislocated and had a tendon tear.

De Guzman was confined at the Makati Medical Center from November 14, 2013 to December 9, 2013.

It was hard for her because she could not attend to the needs of her 3 sons and husband. There were times that she was left alone in the hospital because her husband was the one taking care of their kids and at the same time going to work.

The Employees’ Compensation Commission staff went to her home and visited her.

“I was touched by the ECC staff’s visit. I did not know that there is a government agency providing this kind of services,” De Guzman related.

De Guzman received P30,000 worth of EC sickness benefit, 16 sessions of physical therapy, and balloon arrangement training from Negoskwela provided for free under the EC KaGabay Program

“The therapy sessions helped me walk once again. If not for the free therapy sessions I received from the ECC, maybe I am not yet walking until now, or worse, I might not be able to walk anymore,” De Guzman explained.

De Guzman was able to go back to work again in Air Freight 2100 5 months after the incident.

“When I was in the hospital, my question was: can I still walk and go back to work?” De Guzman recalled.

Of course, her question was now answered in affirmative.

“I am so glad to know that there is a government agency like the ECC. The people from the ECC treat me like their own relative. The ambience in the office was so warm,” she added.

The ECC slogan “Sa ECC higit pa sa benepisyo ang ibinibigay na serbisyo” really speaks of the agency’s commitment to bring the occupationally-disabled workers to the economic mainstream.