4/9/2020 E-Library - Information At Your Fingertips: Printer Friendly workers overseas.” Section 29 of the 1996 POEA SEC itself provides that “[a]ll rights and obligations of the parties to [the] Contract, including the annexes thereof, shall be governed by the laws of the Republic of the Philippines, international conventions, treaties and covenants where the Philippines is a signatory.” Even without this provision, a contract of labor is so impressed with public interest that the New Civil Code expressly subjects it to "the special laws on labor unions, collective bargaining, strikes and lockouts, closed shop, wages, working conditions, hours of labor and similar subjects.” Thus, the Court has applied the Labor Code concept of permanent total disability to the case of seafarers. x x x.[38] The Labor Code defines permanent total disability under Article 192(c)(1), which states: ART. 192. PERMANENT TOTAL DISABILITY. – x x x xxxx (c) The following disabilities shall be deemed total and permanent: (1) Temporary total disability lasting continuously for more than one hundred twenty days, except as otherwise provided in the Rules[.] (Emphasis ours.) This concept of permanent total disability is further explained in Section 2(b), Rule VII of the Implementing Rules of Book IV of the Labor Code (Amended Rules on Employees Compensation) as follows: SEC. 2. Disability. – x x x (b) A disability is total and permanent if as a result of the injury or sickness the employee is unable to perform any gainful occupation for a continuous period exceeding 120 days, except as otherwise provided for in Rule X of these Rules. (Emphasis ours.) The exception in Rule X of the Implementing Rules of Book IV (Amended Rules on Employees Compensation) as mentioned above, on the other hand, pertains to an employee’s entitlement to temporary total disability benefits under Section 2 of the aforesaid Rule X, to wit: SEC. 2. Period of entitlement.— (a) The income benefit shall be paid beginning on the first day of such disability. If caused by an injury or sickness it shall not be paid longer than 120 consecutive days except where injury or sickness still requires medical attendance beyond elibrary.judiciary.gov.ph/thebookshelf/showdocsfriendly/1/55119 8/14