IPIL, Zamboanga Sibugay – Department of Education (DepEd) Secretary Jesli A. Lapus has extended here P150,000 financial assistance to the three Zamboanga Sibugay public elementary school teachers – each receiving P50,000 – who were recently released after almost seven months in captivity in nearby Basilan Province.

Lapus released the amount through the provincial schools division office of Zamboanga Sibugay in Barangay Pangi in this town where he personally met earlier and welcomed mentors Jocelyn Enriquez, Noemi Mandi, and Jocelyn Inion who were presented to him by acting provincial schools division superintendent Amelia Pulmano-Torralba during a gathering of hundreds of teachers and field school officials.

The modest amount, Lapus said, would help in a little way in the rehabilitation and recovery of the three abducted teachers who all looked frail, emaciated, sickly and thin.

The DepEd chief earlier granted Mandi, Enriquez, and Inion a 90-day leave of absence with pay to ensure their complete rehabilitation and recovery after their abduction in early March by speedboat-riding armed men while on their way home onboard a motorized banca from Bangkaw-Bangkaw Elementary School to the poblacion of Naga town.

Torralba said the three tutors were initially confined for over one week at the Ipil Doctors Hospital for treatment.

According to Torralba, she was authorized by Lapus to extend the leave of absence of the three teachers for another three months if they are still too sickly to return to service.

Torralba noted that Mandi, who underwent an operation shortly before they were seized, still continuously complains of stomach pains even as Inion and Enriquez, together with Mandi, are still suffering from swollen feet and bruised legs.