6/5/2020 E-Library - Information At Your Fingertips: Printer Friendly Hence, a partial and permanent disability could, by legal contemplation, become total and permanent. The Court in Kestrel Shipping Co., Inc. v. Munar[40] held that the declaration by the company-designated physician is an obligation, the abdication of which transforms the temporary total disability to permanent total disability, regardless of the disability grade, viz: Indeed, under Section 32 of the POEA-SEC, only those injuries or disabilities that are classified as Grade 1 may be considered as total and permanent. However, if those injuries or disabilities with a disability grading from 2 to 14, hence, partial and permanent, would incapacitate a seafarer from performing his usual sea duties for a period of more than 120 or 240 days, depending on the need for further medical treatment, then he is, under legal contemplation, totally and permanently disabled. In other words, an impediment should be characterized as partial and permanent not only under the Schedule of Disabilities found in Section 32 of the POEA-SEC but should be so under the relevant provisions of the Labor Code and the Amended Rules on Employee Compensation (AREC) implementing Title II, Book IV of the Labor Code. That while the seafarer is partially injured or disabled, he is not precluded from earning doing the same work he had before his injury or disability or that he is accustomed or trained to do. Otherwise, if his illness or injury prevents him from engaging in gainful employment for more than 120 or 240 days, as the case may be, he shall be deemed totally and permanently disabled. Moreover, the company-designated physician is expected to arrive at a definite assessment of the seafarer’s fitness to work or permanent disability within the period of 120 or 240 days. That should he fail to do so and the seafarer’s medical condition remains unresolved, the seafarer shall be deemed totally and permanently disabled.[41] (Emphasis supplied) Assessment of Disability Grading We cannot agree with the Court of Appeals and the Labor Arbiter that the 24 March 2009 disability assessment made by Dr. Cruz was definitive. To our mind, the said disability assessment was an interim one because Carcedo continued to require medical treatments even after 24 March 2009. He was confined in the hospital from 20 April 2009 to 6 June 2009, where he underwent serial debridements, curettage, sequestrectomy and even amputation of the right first metatarsal bone. He was certainly still under total disability, albeit temporary at that time. His discharge from the hospital was 137 days from repatriation. Following the Court’s rulings in Vergara and Kestrel, since Carcedo required further medical treatments beyond the 120 day period, his total and temporary disability was extended. The company-designated physician then had until 240 days from repatriation to give the final assessment. elibrary.judiciary.gov.ph/thebookshelf/showdocsfriendly/1/59949 10/19