6/7/2020 E-Library - Information At Your Fingertips: Printer Friendly [33] Thus, We have held that the notion of disability is intimately related to the worker's capacity to earn, and what is compensated is not his injury or illness but his inability to work resulting in the impairment of his earning capacity. Hence, disability should be understood less on its medical significance but more on the loss of earning capacity.[34] In Hanseatic Shipping Philippines Inc. v. Ballon,[35] We defined total disability as "the disablement of an employee to earn wages in the same kind of work of similar nature that he was trained for, or accustomed to perform, or any kind of work which a person of his mentality and attainments could do." In determining whether a disability is total or partial, what is crucial is whether the employee who suffered from disability could still perform his work notwithstanding the disability he met.[36] A permanent partial disability, on the other hand, presupposes a seafarer's fitness to resume sea duties before the end of the 120/240-day medical treatment period despite the injuries sustained and works on the premise that such partial injuries did not disable a seafarer to earn wages in the same kind of work or similar nature for which he was trained.[37] Petitioner cannot be expected to resume sea duties if the risk of contracting his illness is associated with his previous occupation as Quarter Master. Indeed, records do not show that he was re-employed by respondent NYK or by any other manning agency from the time of his repatriation until the filing of the instant petition. Moreover, the recurrence of mass in petitioner's bladder, the requirement by both the company doctor and his personal doctor that he undergo repeat cystoscopy to monitor polyp growth, his subsequent operation to remove the growing polyps in his bladder even after the lapse of the 240-day period for treatment and despite the final disability grading given, all sufficiently show that his disability is total and permanent. Petitioner's disability being permanent and total, he is entitled to 100% compensation in the amount of US$95,949.00 as stipulated in par. 20.9 of the parties' CBA and as adjudged by the VA. WHEREFORE, the petition is GRANTED. The September 27, 2017 Decision arid February 15, 2018 Resolution of the Court of Appeals in CA G.R. SP No. 149491 are hereby REVERSED and SET ASIDE. The October 25, 2016 Decision of the Panel of Voluntary Arbitrators of the National Mediation and Conciliation Board is hereby REINSTATED. Respondents are ordered to jointly and severally pay petitioner Aldrine B. Ilustricimo the amount of US$95,949.00 or its equivalent amount in Philippine currency at the time of payment, representing total and permanent disability benefits. SO ORDERED. Bersamin, Leonen, Martires, and Gesmundo, JJ., concur. July 9, 2018 NOTICE OF JUDGMENT Sirs/Mesdames: elibrary.judiciary.gov.ph/thebookshelf/showdocsfriendly/1/64175 9/12