1/4/2021 E-Library - Information At Your Fingertips: Printer Friendly Citing Vergara vs. Hammonio Maritime Services, Inc.,[26] the Court has elucidated in Scanmar Maritime Services, Inc. vs. Hernandez, Jr.[27] that the period of 120 days from repatriation is the duration within which the employer is to determine the fitness of the seafarer to work or to ascertain the degree of his disability; in such case where the seafarer remains in need of medical attention, the 120-day period may be extended to a maximum period of 240 days within which the company-designated doctor must make a definite declaration on the fitness to work or the degree of the disability of the seafarer. A seafarer is thus considered permanently and totally disabled when so declared by the company-designated doctor within the period of 120 or 240 days, as the case may be; or after the lapse of 240 days without any declaration being issued by the company-designated physician. In Scanmar,[28] the Court went further in enumerating the instances when the seafarer may already pursue a case for full disability benefits, viz.: (a) the company-designated physician failed to issue a declaration as to his fitness to engage in sea duty or disability even after the lapse of the 120-day period and there is no indication that further medical treatment would address his temporary total disability, hence, justify an extension of the period to 240 days; (b) 240 days had lapsed without any certification being issued by the company-designated physician; (c) the company-designated physician declared that he is fit for sea duty within the 120-day or 240-day period, as the case may be, but his physician of choice and the doctor chosen under Section 20-B(3) of the POEA-SEC are of a contrary opinion; (d) the company-designated physician acknowledged that he is partially permanently disabled but other doctors who he consulted, on his own and jointly with his employer, believed that his disability is not only permanent but total as well; (e) the company-designated physician recognized that he is totally and permanently disabled but there is a dispute on the disability grading; (f) the company-designated physician determined that his medical condition is not compensable or work-related under the POEASEC but his doctor-of-choice and the third doctor selected under Section 20-B(3) of the POEA-SEC found otherwise and declared him unfit to work; (g) the company-designated physician declared him totally and permanently disabled but the employer refuses to pay him the corresponding benefits; and (h) the company-designated physician declared him partially and permanently disabled within the 120-day or 240-day period but https://elibrary.judiciary.gov.ph/thebookshelf/showdocsfriendly/1/65555 5/9