E-Library - Information At Your Fingertips: Printer Friendly 11 of 18 http://elibrary.judiciary.gov.ph/thebookshelf/showdocsfriendly/1/57858 assumes the risk of liability. If the disease is the proximate cause of the employee’s death for which compensation is sought, the previous physical condition of the employee is unimportant and recovery may be had therefor independent of any pre-existing disease.[65] (Emphases and underscoring supplied) Later, the Court, in Seagull Shipmanagement and Transport, Inc. v. NLRC[66] – a sickness and permanent disability claims case decided under the auspices of the 1984 version of the POEA-SEC (which, unlike the present standard contract, only requires that the illness of death occur during the term of the employment whether work-related or not) – significantly observed that: Even assuming that the ailment of the worker was contracted prior to his employment, this still would not deprive him of compensation benefits. For what matters is that his work had contributed, even in a small degree, to the development of the disease and in bringing about his eventual death. Neither is it necessary, in order to recover compensation, that the employee must have been in perfect health at the time he contracted the disease. A worker brings with him possible infirmities in the course of his employment, and while the employer is not the insurer of the health of the employees, he takes them as he finds them and assumes the risk of liability. If the disease is the proximate cause of the employee’s death for which compensation is sought, the previous physical condition of the employee is unimportant, and recovery may be had for said death, independently of any pre-existing disease. [67] (Emphases and underscoring supplied; citations omitted) The Court similarly took into account the work-relatedness element in granting the death benefits claim in Interorient Maritime Enterprises, Inc. v. Remo,[68] a 2010 case decided under the 1996 POEA-SEC which operated under parameters identical to the 1984 POEA-SEC. Quoted hereunder are the pertinent portions of that ruling: It was established on record that before the late Lutero Remo signed his last contract with private respondents as Cook-Steward of the vessel “M/T Captain Mitsos L,” he was required to undergo a series of medical examinations. Yet, he was declared “fit to work” by private respondents’ company designated-physician. On April 19, 1999, Remo was discharged from his vessel after he was hospitalized in Fujairah for atrial fibrillation and congestive heart failure. His death on August 28, 2000, even if it occurred months after his repatriation, due to hypertensive cardio-vascular disease, could clearly have been work related. Declared as “fit to work” at the time of hiring, and hospitalized while on service on account of “atrial fibrillation and congestive heart failure,” his 3/27/2020, 12:51 PM