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not deserve evidentiary weight since there was nothing in the POEA contract
authorizing or requiring a seafarer to certify his own state of health.
On the defense that following Section 20(E) of the POEA contract, Godinez should be
barred from claiming benefits in view of his concealment of and failure to disclose
during the PEME that he consulted medically for insomnia and paranoia when he was
15 years old, the Labor Arbiter held that Godinez's failure to disclose this fact was not
intentional and did not amount to intentional concealment; that the fact simply "slipped
his mind considering the passage of time;"[31] and that when he underwent the PEME,
he was only 20 years old and could not have known the consequences of the PEME
except that it was a simple prerequisite to employment.
Regarding monetary claims, the Labor Arbiter held that, having found permanent and
total disability, Godinez was entitled to US$60,000.00 as disability benefit; sickness
allowance, less what he already received; medical expenses; moral and exemplary
damages since malice and bad faith attended the denial of his claims and for presenting
forged documentary evidence; and attorney's fees. The Decision thus decreed:
WHEREFORE,
premises
considered,
respondents
Career
Phils.
Shipmanagement, Inc.; Columbia Shipmanagement Ltd. and individual
respondent Verlou R. Carmelino are hereby ordered jointly and severally to
pay complaint Eduard J. Godinez the following:
1. Permanent and total disability compensation in the amount of
US$60,000.00;
2. Sickness allowance amounting to US$475.00;
3. Reimbursement of medical expenses in the amount of Php70,475.90;
4. Moral damages in the amount of US$10,000.00; and Exemplary
damages in the amount of US$5,000.00; and
5. Ten percent (10%) of the total judgment award for and as attorney's
fees.
In US DOLLARS or its equivalent in PHILIPPINE PESO at the time of
payment.
All other claims are hereby ordered dismissed for lack of merit.
SO ORDERED.[32]
Ruling of the National Labor Relations Commission
Career, Columbian, and Carmelino appealed before the National Labor Relations
Commission (NLRC), which docketed the case as OFW(M) 06-03-00768-00 (CA NO. 08000152-07).
elibrary.judiciary.gov.ph/thebookshelf/showdocsfriendly/1/63469
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