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DECISION
MENDOZA, J.:
While it is true that labor contracts are impressed with public
interest and the provisions of the POEA Standard Employment Contract
must be construed logically and liberally in favor of Filipino seamen in
the pursuit of their employment on board ocean-going vessels, absent
substantial evidence from which reasonable basis for the grant of
benefits prayed for can be drawn, We are left with no choice but to deny
the claims of the employee, lest We cause injustice to the employer. We
must always remember that justice is in every case for the deserving, to
be dispensed with in the light of established facts, the applicable law,
and existing jurisprudence.1[1]
This is a petition for review under Rule 45 of the Rules of Court challenging
the October 29, 2008 Decision2[2] of the Court of Appeals (CA), and its March 4,
1[1] Klaveness Maritime Agency, Inc. v. Beneficiaries of the Late Second Officer Anthony S.
Allas, G.R. No. 168560, January 28, 2008, 542 SCRA 593, 603.
2[2] Rollo, pp. 22-45. Penned by Associate Justice Celia C. Librea-Leagogo with Associate
Justice Mario L. Guarina III and Associate Justice Ricardo R. Rosario, concurring.