5/19/2021 E-Library - Information At Your Fingertips: Printer Friendly A seafarer who knowingly conceals a pre-existing illness or condition in the Pre-Employment Medical Examination (PEME) shall be liable for misrepresentation and shall be disqualified for any compensation and benefits. This is likewise a just cause for termination of employment and imposition of appropriate administrative sanctions. Thus, an illness shall be considered as pre-existing if prior to the processing of the POEA contract, any of the following conditions is present: (a) the advice of a medical doctor on treatment given for such continuing illness or condition; or (b) the seafarer had been diagnosed and has knowledge of such illness or condition but failed to disclose the same during the PEME, and such cannot be diagnosed during the PEME.[55] More, to speak of fraudulent misrepresentation does not only mean that a person failed to disclose the truth but that he or she deliberately concealed it for a malicious purpose. To equate with fraudulent misrepresentation, the falsity must be coupled with intent to deceive and to profit from that deception.[56] Here, the Court agrees with the Court of Appeals that petitioner fraudulently concealed his hypertension and diabetes. As the Court of Appeals correctly found, records show that petitioner had already been diagnosed with hypertension during his previous 2009 PEME with another employer. He had been maintained on metoprolol to treat his hypertension. He also got diagnosed with diabetes in 2010 and was treated at Seaman's Hospital and prescribed with metformin as maintenance medicine. But despite personal knowledge of his medical history, petitioner lied about it during his January 2012 PEME. There, he was asked whether he had suffered from or had been diagnosed with hypertension, heart trouble, rheumatic fever, and/or diabetes mellitus. To this question, he indicated "no" in the form he was made to answer. This is clear from the form that he filled out.[57] In the recent case of Lerona v. Sea Power Shipping Enterprises, Inc., et al.,[58] the Court denied a seafarer's claim for disability on ground of concealment, viz.: As correctly observed by the CA, petitioner did not indicate in the appropriate box in his PEME form that he has hypertension, although he had been taking Norvasc as maintenance medicine for two years. He only disclosed his pre-existing medical condition after he was repatriated to the Philippines. Petitioner claims that he did not reveal his hypertension during his PEME out of an honest belief that it had been "resolved." However, this is not persuasive. That petitioner continues to take maintenance medicine indicates that his condition is not yet resolved. Additionally, within the two years that petitioner had been taking maintenance medication for his hypertension, he had boarded respondents' ships four times. Since PEME is mandatory before a seafarer is able to board a ship, it goes to show that petitioner concealed his hypertension no less than four times as well. This circumstance negates any suggestion of good faith that petitioner makes in defense of his misdeed. The Court had on many occasions disqualified seafarers from https://elibrary.judiciary.gov.ph/thebookshelf/showdocsfriendly/1/66467 9/17