6/5/2020 E-Library - Information At Your Fingertips: Printer Friendly which constitutes permanent total disability. An award of a total and permanent disability benefit would be germane to the purpose of the benefit, which is to help the employee in making ends meet at the time when he is unable to work.[16] (Citations omitted and italics supplied) Thus, that the respondent required therapy beyond 240 days and remained unable to perform his customary work during this time rendered unnecessary any further need by him to secure his own doctor’s opinion or that of a neutral third doctor to determine the extent of his permanent disability. Concerning the joint and solidary liability of the manning agency, Sealanes, its foreign principal, Arklow Shipping Netherland, and Sealanes’ President Dumatol, Section 10 of Republic Act (R.A.) No. 8042, otherwise known as the “Migrant Workers and Overseas Filipinos Act of 1995”, as amended by Section 7 of R.A. No. 10022, reads: SEC. 10. Money Claims. – Notwithstanding any provision of law to the contrary, the Labor Arbiters of the National Labor Relations Commission (NLRC) shall have the original and exclusive jurisdiction to hear and decide, within ninety (90) calendar days after the filing of the complaint, the claims arising out of an employer-employee relationship or by virtue of any law or contract involving Filipino workers for overseas deployment including claims for actual, moral, exemplary and other forms of damage. Consistent with this mandate, the NLRC shall endeavor to update and keep abreast with the developments in the global services industry. The liability of the principal/employer and the recruitment/placement agency for any and all claims under this section shall be joint and several. This provision shall be incorporated in the contract for overseas employment and shall be a condition precedent for its approval. The performance bond to [be] filed by the recruitment/placement agency, as provided by law, shall be answerable for all money claims or damages that may be awarded to the workers. If the recruitment/placement agency is a juridical being, the corporate officers and directors and partners as the case may be, shall themselves be jointly and solidarily liable with the corporation or partnership for the aforesaid claims and damages. Such liabilities shall continue during the entire period or duration of the employment contract and shall not be affected by any substitution, amendment or modification made locally or in a foreign country of the said contract. x x x x (Italics ours) Thus, every applicant for license to operate a seafarers’ manning agency shall, in the case of a corporation or partnership, submit a written application together with, among others, a verified undertaking by officers, directors and partners that they will be jointly elibrary.judiciary.gov.ph/thebookshelf/showdocsfriendly/1/59534 6/8