3/27/2020 E-Library - Information At Your Fingertips: Printer Friendly from the ship. Additionally, the petitioners cited the following personal circumstances that may have driven Dennis to do what he did: his dysfunctional family; the death of his mother after a lingering illness; the bitter parting with his father whom he had not seen for three (3)[29] after he and his two (2) brothers were thrown out from their home in Talisay, Cebu; and his disappointment with his sister whose medical education he supported, only to learn that she got married and did not even invite him to the wedding.[30] Based on these facts and the legal presumption of sanity, we conclude that the NLRC did not gravely abuse its discretion when it affirmed the LA’s dismissal of the complaint; we hold that the seafarer’s death was due to his willful act, as the employer posited and proved. Two analogous cases may be cited in support of this conclusion. In Great Southern Maritime Services Corp. v. Leonila Surigao,[31] the seafarer was found dead inside the bathroom of his hospital room with a belt tied around his neck. In denying the claim for death benefits, the Court ruled that substantial evidence suffices for the employer to show that the seafarer committed suicide even if there was no eyewitness to its commission and the possibility of a contrary conclusion existed. In Crewlink, Inc. v. Teringtering,[32] the seafarer, who had already previously jumped in the open sea, jumped again, resulting in his death due to drowning. In holding that it was a case of suicide, the Court ruled that the employer “was able to substantially prove that [the seafarer’s] death was attributable to his deliberate act of killing himself by jumping into the sea.” With the company’s discharge of the burden to prove its defense, the burden of evidence shifted to Apolinario to rebut the petitioners’ case. In other words, Apolinario has to prove by substantial evidence that Dennis may be insane at the time he took his life. By holding that willfulness “could not be presumed” from Dennis’ act of jumping overboard, we observe that the CA cluttered its appreciation of the evidence, contrary to the rules on the burden of proof and the burden of evidence that must be observed since the issue before the CA was not the intrinsic correctness of the NLRC’s ruling but the existence of grave abuse of discretion. As the LA and the NLRC found, the petitioners have discharged by substantial evidence the burden of proving willfulness through the cumulative consideration of the following circumstances: 1. Just a few hours before the incident, Filipino crew members spoke with Dennis in his cabin and asked him if there was anything wrong with his state of health; Dennis replied that everything was in order. 2. After Dennis jumped from the ship, he was seen calmly floating on his back and was not swimming towards the life ring or the lifeboat while elibrary.judiciary.gov.ph/thebookshelf/showdocsfriendly/1/57997 6/13