PEME is not a measure of the seafarer’s true state of health;18[18] and it was error
for the Labor Arbiter to award sickness wages, as it was manifest from the records
that petitioner was duly paid therefor on October 14, 2004.19[19]
The Court of Appeals upheld the decision of the NLRC, by Decision 20[20] of
August 13, 2009, holding that under the 2000 Philippine Overseas Employment
Authority (POEA) Standard Employment Contract, for disability to be
compensable, it must be the result of work-related injury or illness, unlike in the
1996 POEA Standard Employment Contract in which it was sufficient that the
seafarer suffered injury or illness during his term of employment;21[21] that the
2000 POEA Standard Employment Contract defines a work-related illness as any
sickness resulting in disability or death as a result of an occupational disease listed
under Section 32-A of the Contract with the conditions set therein satisfied; and
that while any illness not listed in Section 32 is disputably presumed to be workrelated, such disputable presumption was sufficiently rebutted when the companydesignated doctors categorically stated that petitioner’s seizure disorder was not
work-related.
18[18] Id. at 144-145.
19[19] Id. at 147.
20[20] Id. at 180-193.
21[21] Id. at 189.