4/9/2020 E-Library - Information At Your Fingertips: Printer Friendly 240 days, subject to the right of the employer to declare within this period that a permanent partial or total disability already exists. The seaman may of course be declared fit to work at any time such declaration is justified by his medical condition.[26] (Citations omitted) Based on this Court’s pronouncements in Vergara, it is easily discernible that the 120day or 240-day period and the obligations the law imposed on the employer are determinative of when a seafarer’s cause of action for total and permanent disability may be considered to have arisen. Thus, a seafarer may pursue an action for total and permanent disability benefits if: (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 companydesignated 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 companydesignated physician determined that his medical condition is not compensable or work-related under the POEA-SEC 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 he remains incapacitated to perform his usual sea duties after the lapse of the said periods. As the facts of this case show, Taok filed a complaint for total and permanent disability benefits while he was still considered to be temporarily and totally disabled; while the petitioners were still attempting to address his medical condition which the law considers as temporary; and while the company-designated doctors were still in the process of determining whether he is permanently disabled or still capable of performing his usual sea duties. None of the enumerated instances when an action for total and permanent disability benefits may be instituted is present. As previously stated, the 120-day period had not yet lapsed and the company-designated physician has not yet made any declaration as to his fitness or disability. Thus, in legal contemplation, Taok was still considered to be totally yet temporarily disabled at the time he filed the complaint. Being in a state of temporary total disability, Taok cannot claim total and permanent disability benefits as he is only entitled to: (a) sickness wages under Section 20-B(3) of the POEA-SEC; (b) repatriation with the employer shouldering the full costs thereof under Section 20-B(5); and (c) medical treatment including board and lodging with the full costs thereof borne by the employer. Taok cannot be considered as having acquired a cause of action for elibrary.judiciary.gov.ph/thebookshelf/showdocsfriendly/1/55036 12/15