3/25/2021 E-Library - Information At Your Fingertips: Printer Friendly arising from an illness or disease shall be governed by the rates and the rules of compensation applicable at the time the illness or disease was contracted. xxx xxx xxx Petitioners' contention that the existence and grade of a seaman's disability must be pronounced by a physician accredited by the POEA does not find any support in the abovecited provision, nor in any other portion of the Standard Employment Contract. In order to claim disability benefits under the Standard Employment Contract, it is the "company-designated" physician who must proclaim that the seaman suffered a permanent disability, whether total or partial, due to either injury or illness, during the term of the latter's employment. There is no provision requiring accreditation by the POEA of such physician. In fact, aside from their own gratuitous allegations, petitioners are unable to cite a single provision in the said contract in support of their assertions or to offer any credible evidence to substantiate their claim. If accreditation of the company-designated physician was contemplated by the POEA, it would have expressly provided for such a qualification, by specifically using the term "accreditation" in the Standard Employment Contract, to denote its intention. For instance, under the Labor Code it is expressly provided that physicians and hospitals providing medical care to an injured or sick employee covered by the Social Security System or Government Service Insurance System must be accredited by the Employees Compensation Commission.[10] It is a cardinal rule in the interpretation of contracts that if the terms of a contract are clear and leave no doubt upon the intention of the contracting parties, the literal meaning of its stipulation shall control.[11] There is no ambiguity in the wording of the Standard Employment Contract - the only qualification prescribed for the physician entrusted with the task of assessing the seaman's disability is that he be "companydesignated." When the language of the contract is explicit, as in the case at bar, leaving no doubt as to the intention of the drafters thereof, the courts may not read into it any other intention that would contradict its plain import.[12] The word "designate" means to specify, to mark out and make known, to identify by name, to indicate, to show, to distinguish by mark or description, or to set apart for a purpose or duty.[13] The Court agrees with the appellate court's ruling that petitioners' act of committing private respondent for treatment at the Manila Doctors Hospital and paying the hospital bills therein is tantamount to "company-designation." By such unequivocal acts, petitioners clearly set apart and distinguished the Manila Doctors Hospital, together with its team of specialists, as the ones qualified to assess the existence and degree of private respondent's disability and thereby resolve the question of the latter's entitlement to disability benefits under the Standard Employment Contract. In addition to their having been effectively designated by petitioners, it was the physicians from the Manila Doctors Hospital who examined and treated private respondent for a little more than one month, subjecting the latter to a series of medical procedures, such as medical therapy, neurological surgical drainage for brain abscess, bilateral thalamic area S/P craniotomy (Burr Hole), and opthalmological (orbit) surgery for socket revision and reconstruction of his left eye. The extensive medical attention https://elibrary.judiciary.gov.ph/thebookshelf/showdocsfriendly/1/50003 9/16