8/23/2020 E-Library - Information At Your Fingertips: Printer Friendly On September 16, 2013, Labor Arbiter Enrique Flores Jr. (LA) rendered his decision granting the claim and ordering the petitioners to pay to the respondent: (1) the amount of US$60,000.00, representing permanent total disability benefit; and (2) attorney's fees equivalent to 10% of the total award.[9] Ruling of the NLRC On appeal, the NLRC rendered its ruling on April 30, 2014 affirming the decision of the Labor Arbiter, to wit: A closer look at the medical assessment of the company-designated physician reveals that the said physician confined his treatment solely to his diagnosis of PROSTATITIS and simultaneously RULE OUT UROLITHIASIS. There was no further mention at all about the cause of Dysurea with Loin Pain and Back Pain being suffered by complainant as earlier diagnosed by the physician who initially examined him in Dubai and for which complainant was medically repatriated. Neither was there any pronouncement at all whether other ailments such as Dysurea was completely resolved as well. We further took note of respondent appellants contention that complainant was repatriated due only to Dysuria With Loin Pain and Back Pain, and did not include other ailment such as Nephrolithiasis, Diabetic Nephropathy; Osteoarthritis; Degenerative Changes of Lumbar Spine with Minimal L3-L4 caudad to L5-S1 Disc Protrusion; and Benign Positional Vertigo. To our mind, respondent-appellants were evading these medical issues in their haste to declare complainant as fit to work to free themselves from the obligation of paying the complainant's claim for permanent total disability compensation. [10] After their motion for reconsideration was denied, the petitioners assailed the ruling of the NLRC on certiorari in the CA. Decision of the CA The petitioners contended in C.A.-G.R. SP No. 136293 that the NLRC had gravely abused its discretion amounting to lack or excess of its jurisdiction in affirming the findings of the Labor Arbiter and awarding the respondent with permanent total disability compensation notwithstanding the findings of the company-designated physician to the effect that he had already been declared fit to resume his seafaring duties; and in relying on the assessment of the second physician contrary to the "third doctor appointment" procedure stipulated in the POEA-Standard Employment Contract (POEA-SEC). On November 10, 2014, however, the CA promulgated the assailed decision dismissing the petition for certiorari and upholding the NLRC, viz.: WHEREFORE, premises considered, the Petition is DENIED. Costs against petitioners. SO ORDERED.[11] Issue elibrary.judiciary.gov.ph/thebookshelf/showdocsfriendly/1/65168 3/9