6/5/2020 E-Library - Information At Your Fingertips: Printer Friendly knowledge and familiarity of private respondent’s injury and could very well accurately evaluate the latter’s degree of disability. The evaluations made by the company-designated physician were never disputed. Even their competence has not been challenged. Besides, as between the companydesignated doctor who has all the medical records of private respondent during the duration of his treatment and as against the latter’s private doctor who examined for a day as an outpatient, the former’s finding must prevail.[20] Very akin to the case at bar is the case of OSG Shipmanagement v. Pellazar[21] where we ruled that the company designated physician’s findings, although not binding on the Court, generally prevails over other medical findings. We quote: By recognizing that a disagreement between the company-designated physicians and the physician chosen by the seafarer may exist, the POEASEC itself impliedly recognizes the seafarer’s right to request a second medical opinion from a physician of his own choice. That the seafarer should not be prevented from seeking an independent medical opinion proceeds from the theory that a company-designated physician, naturally, may downplay the compensation due to the seafarer because that is what the employer, after all, expects of him. Accordingly, the Court observed that labor tribunals and the courts are not bound by the medical findings of the company-designated physician and that the inherent merits of its medical findings will be weighed and duly considered. However, even on this context, the NLRC’s ruling awarding Pellazar disability benefits based on the Grade 10 rating of Drs. De Guzman and Banaga can fully withstand a Rule 65 challenge since the Grade 10 rating had ample basis in the extensive evaluation and treatment of Pellazar by these two company doctors, including an orthopedic specialist and a physiatrist. In stark contrast, Dr. Sabado, Pellazar’s chosen physician, examined him only once and could have treated him for a few hours only, considering as the petitioners point out, that Pellazar came all the way from Antipolo, where he resides, to Dagupan City, where Dr. Sabado is practicing his profession. It is as if, the petitioners aver, Pellazar sought out Dr. Sabado in Dagupan City for a favorable certification. While Dr. Sabado’s diagnosis was consistent with that of the companydesignated physicians (which centered on the injury in Pellazar’s 5th right finger and the resulting loss of grasping power of said fifth finger), Dr. Sabado certified Pellazar to be permanently unfit for sea service. Notwithstanding Dr. Sabado’s unfit-to-work certification (which the LA relied upon in ruling in Pellazar’s favor), the NLRC gave more credence to the Grade 10 disability rating of Pellazar than the assessment of Dr. Sabado. The NLRC’s mere disagreement with the LA, however, does not give rise to grave abuse of discretion, unless the NLRC’s contrary conclusion had no basis in fact and law. In the present case, the NLRC ruling was actually elibrary.judiciary.gov.ph/thebookshelf/showdocsfriendly/1/60647 8/10