PAF airlifts C. Valley student, teacher

Education Secretary Jesli Lapus successfully coordinated with the Philippine Air Force (PAF) for the airlifting yesterday morning of a student athlete injured in a bus collision and an ailing teacher from hospitals in Cagayan Valley to the AFP Medical Center in Quezon City and Medical City in Pasig City.

Lapus, with the help of PAF Tactical Operations Group II commander Lt. Col. Isaias Espino, contacted PAF commanding general Lt. Gen. Horacio Tolentino last Wednesday afternoon to lift the order grounding the PAF’s UH-IH helicopters so as to airlift 12-year-old football player Wayne Mark Difontorum to the AFP Medical Center.

The PAF grounded all its UH-IH helicopters following last week’s crash in Cebu that left nine people dead.

Also airlifted was Leila Agcaoili, 52, a teacher of the Claveria Central School in Cagayan, who was suffering from head and body injuries as well as severe bleeding. She was taken to the Medical City in Pasig.

Last Wednesday, Lapus flew to Cagayan Valley to condole with the family of public elementary school principal Leonardo Adriano, elementary teacher Manolo Manguigad, and elementary graduates Shane Apolonio and Meynard Anog, who were killed when two passenger buses collided in Isabela last Tuesday.

Many passengers, mostly student athletes like Difontorum who represented Cagayan Valley in the recent Palarong Pambansa in Koronadal City, were injured.

Difontorum was still comatose when he was airlifted. – Rainier Allan Ronda