5/28/2020 E-Library - Information At Your Fingertips: Printer Friendly examination by the company-designated physician, Victor’s claim for disability benefits must still fail for not being compensable. For an illness to be compensable, Section 20(B)(6)[29] of the 2000 Amended Standard Terms and Conditions Governing the Employment of Filipino Seafarers on Board OceanGoing Vessels (2000 Amended Standard Terms and Conditions), deemed incorporated in the POEA Contract, requires the concurrence of two elements: first, that the illness must be work-related; and second, that the work-related illness must have existed during the term of the seafarer’s employment contract.[30] a) Victor failed to show that his illness existed during the term of his contract. In this case, Victor submitted no proof that his illness was contracted during the term of his contract with InterOrient. As already mentioned, the reason for Victor’s repatriation was the completion/expiration of his contract and not because of any sickness. Other than his uncorroborated and self-serving assertion that he experienced chest pains while on board the vessel, there was absolutely no proof at all that he consulted a doctor while on board, or that he reported the same to his superiors so that he will be provided with medical assistance. On the contrary, upon repatriation, he signed a Receipt and Release wherein he acknowledged that he worked under normal conditions on board the vessel; that he did not contract or suffer any injury; and that he was discharged in good health. Victor never alleged that he was coerced into signing the Receipt and Release or that he did not understand the same. Thus, it was crucial that Victor presented “concrete proof showing that he acquired or contracted the x x x illness that resulted to his disability during the term of his employment contract.”[31] Proof of this circumstance was particularly crucial considering the absence of any evidence that he reported his illness while on board and after his repatriation.[32] However, all that Victor put forward were bare allegations that he experienced what appeared to be symptoms of pulmonary tuberculosis on board the vessel, and the dogged insistence that his working conditions are proof enough that his work contributed to his contracting the disease. b) Victor failed to show that his illness is work-related. “Work-related illness” is defined under the 2000 Amended Standard Terms and Condition “as any sickness resulting in disability or death due to an occupational disease listed under Section 32-A of [the said] contract[,] with the conditions set therein satisfied.”[33] There is no question that Pulmonary Tuberculosis is listed as an occupational disease under Section 32-A(18). However, for the disability caused by this occupational disease to be compensable, the POEA Contract provides conditions that must be satisfied, viz: SECTION 32-A OCCUPATIONAL DISEASES For an occupational disease and the resulting disability or death to be compensable, all of the following conditions must be satisfied: elibrary.judiciary.gov.ph/thebookshelf/showdocsfriendly/1/57627 8/19