5/19/2021 E-Library - Information At Your Fingertips: Printer Friendly administrative proceedings, the degree of proof required is substantial evidence or that amount of relevant evidence which a reasonable mind might accept as adequate to justify the conclusion. Substantial evidence is more than a scintilla. The evidence must be real and substantial, and not merely apparent. As in any other claim, the claimant is burdened to establish his entitlement to the benefits provided by law.[25] In this case, it should foremost be emphasized that petitioner was not medically repatriated, but was signed off due to the expiration of his contract. Petitioner was, subsequent to his repatriation and prior to his supposed subsequent re-employment with respondents, diagnosed through a PEME with a cardiovascular and renal diseases. Yet, petitioner insists on claiming full disability benefits for his illnesses, claiming that he contracted the same from and during his employment on board respondents' vessel. Strikingly lacking from the records, however, are the description and proofs of the scope of his job and his actual daily tasks as a Chief Engineer that would have shown the correlation of his employment to the development and/or aggravation of his cardiovascular and renal diseases. The records are bereft of any evidence that would have given the Court at least an iota of proof with regard to the nature of petitioner's job on board the vessel. If at all, petitioner merely made unsubstantiated sweeping assertions about his tasks. Certainly, this Court cannot accept hook, line, and sinker petitioner's uncorroborated self-serving allegations that he rendered more than eight hours of work in the engine room with 40-degree-Celsius temperature; that he was given unhealthy food; and that he was constantly exposed to varying extreme temperatures and harsh weather conditions, as well as to physical and emotional stress on board the vessel,[26] especially when these allegations were denied by respondents. What is more, aside from petitioner's bare allegation, there is nothing on record that would prove his claim that he experienced symptoms of his diagnosed illnesses on board the vessel. Neither is there any proof that he notified the ship captain about his alleged chest pains and tightness while on board the vessel and that he was merely ignored due to the impending expiration of his employment contract. This Court finds it incredible for a ship captain to refuse to give medical attention to a ship crew who lodges a medical complaint as serious as chest pains and tightness in the middle of the voyage merely because the latter's employment contract is about to expire.[27] Likewise, this Court is baffled by the fact that petitioner merely let go of his alleged serious medical complaint when he could have at least requested for medication, demanded a thorough medical attention, in the interim or insisted on being brought to a doctor at the nearest port considering the alleged seriousness of his condition. What is clear in this case is the fact that petitioner finished his contract without any evidence of injury or health problem suffered on board. Again, claimants for disability benefits must first discharge the burden of proving with substantial evidence that their ailment was acquired and/or aggravated during the term of their contract. They must show that they experienced health problems while at sea, the circumstances under which they developed the illness, as well as the symptoms associated by it.[28] As consistently held by the Court, at most, petitioner's general statements as to https://elibrary.judiciary.gov.ph/thebookshelf/showdocsfriendly/1/66454 6/12