6/7/2020 E-Library - Information At Your Fingertips: Printer Friendly In summary, if there is a claim for total and permanent disability benefits by a seafarer, the following rules (rules) shall govern: 1. The company-designated physician must issue a final medical assessment on the seafarer's disability grading within a period of 120 days from the time the seafarer reported to him; 2. If the company-designated physician fails to give his assessment within the period of 120 days, without any justifiable reason, then the seafarer's disability becomes permanent and total; 3. If the company-designated physician fails to give his assessment within the period of 120 days with a sufficient justification (e.g., seafarer required further medical treatment or seafarer was uncooperative), then the period of diagnosis and treatment shall be extended to 240 days. The employer has the burden to prove that the companydesignated physician has sufficient justification to extend the period; and 4. If the company-designated physician still fails to give his assessment within the extended period of 240 days, then the seafarer's disability becomes permanent and total, regardless of any justification. The Court is not unmindful of the declaration in INC Shipmanagement that " [t]he extent of his disability (whether total or partial) is determined, not by the number of days that he could not work, but by the disability grading the doctor recognizes based on his resulting incapacity to work and earn his wages." Indeed, the disability benefits granted to the seafarer are not entirely dependent on the number of treatment lapsed days. The treatment period can be extended to 240 days if the company-designated physician provided some sufficient justification. Equally eminent, however, is the Court's pronouncement in the more recent case of Carcedo that "[t]he determination of the fitness of a seafarer for sea duty is the province of the company-designated physician, subject to the periods prescribed by law."[24] (emphases and italics in the original) As such, the mere lapse of the 120-day period does not automatically render the disability of the seafarer permanent and total. The period may be extended to 240 days should the circumstances justify the same. In this case, the extension of the initial 120day period to issue an assessment was justified considering that during the interim, Buenaventura underwent therapy and rehabilitation and was continuously observed. The company-designated physicians did not sit idly by and wait for the lapse of the said period. Buenaventura's further need of treatment necessitated the extension for the elibrary.judiciary.gov.ph/thebookshelf/showdocsfriendly/1/63852 9/11