5 slain PDEA agents receive aid from ECC

families of the five anti-drug agents killed in an ambush in Lanao del Sur in 2018 received cash assistance from the Employees’ Compensation Commission (ECC) last week.

The assistance was formally turned over in the regional office of Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA).

The ECC is an agency of the Department of Labor and Employment, which provides both public and private employees a package of benefits involving untoward work incidents like illnesses, injuries, and even death.

In October last year, Kenneth Tabulo, Kristine Mae Torlao, Lores Joy

Amar, Binzo Dipolla, and Diobel Pacinio, all agents of the PDEA, were killed in an ambush in Kapai town, Lanao del Sur while on their way from an anti-drug symposium.

Each family of the deceased agents were given P15,000 worth of cash assistance handed by PDEA XI regional director Antonio E. Rivera and ECC regional officer Franscheline Orvette D. Loayon. Meanwhile, the two individuals who survived the ambush were given P10,000.

The assistance is said to be an addition to the P30,000 burial benefit and survivorship pension.

“Though no amount can appease the grief caused by the loss of their loved ones, the assistance granted by the ECC greatly helps the families to cope with such loss,” said Rivera.

“The grant of cash assistance is in consonance with the Commission’s active role in providing financial intervention for the families of government and private workers who would suffer untimely death due or injury arising from duties,” Loayon said.