8/20/2020 E-Library - Information At Your Fingertips: Printer Friendly 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 company-designated 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." Thus, to strike a balance between the two conflicting interests of the seafarer and its employer, the rules methodically took in consideration the applicability of both the 120-day period under the Labor Code and the 240day period under the IRR. The medical assessment of the companydesignated physician is not the alpha and the omega of the seafarer's claim for permanent and total disability. To become effective, such assessment must be issued within the bounds of the authorized 120-day period or the properly extended 240-day period.[21] (Emphases ours) In the present case, the records reveal that from Segui's repatriation and immediate referral to the company-designated physician on December 2, 2010 until the 120-day period on March 31, 2011, the latter did not issue a medical assessment on Segui's disability grading. It was only on the 219th day or on July 8, 2011, when Segui reached the maximum medical cure, that the company-designated physician issued a disability rating of "Grade 8 disability - moderate rigidity or 2/3 loss of motion or lifting power of the trunk." Notably, the company-designated physician did not determine Segui's fitness to work. Clearly, there was non-compliance with Items 1 and 2 of the rules on claim for total and permanent disability benefits cited in the Elburg case. The companydesignated physician failed to issue a medical assessment within the 120-day period from the time Segui reported to him, and there was no justifiable reason for such failure. Likewise, there was no sufficient justification to extend the 120-day period to 240 days. Thus, following the above rules, Segui's disability becomes permanent and elibrary.judiciary.gov.ph/thebookshelf/showdocsfriendly/1/64944 8/12