4/9/2020 E-Library - Information At Your Fingertips: Printer Friendly disability is that he be “company-designated,” the literal meaning of the same shall thus control. In Seagull Maritime Corp. v. Dee,[29] however, a case involving an employment contract entered into in 1999 as in this case, we have held that resort to prognosis of other physicians may be allowed especially so if there are serious doubts on the evaluation made by the company-designated physician. The same ruling was applied in Abante v. KJGS Fleet Management Manila[30] in that the seafarer was given an option to seek a second opinion from his preferred physician notwithstanding the fact that it was the POEA Memorandum Circular No. 05-96 which governed the parties’ contract of employment. Hence, “while it is the company-designated physician who must declare that the seaman suffers a permanent disability during employment, it does not deprive the seafarer of his right to seek a second opinion, hence the Contract recognizes the prerogative of the seafarer to request a second opinion and, for this purpose, to consult a physician of his choice.”[31] The case of Maunlad Transport, Inc. v. Manigo, Jr.[32] has also reiterated the prerogative of a seafarer to request for a second opinion with the qualification that the physician’s report shall still be evaluated according to its inherent merit for the Court’s consideration, viz: All told, the rule is that under Section 20-B(3) of the 1996 POEA-SEC, it is mandatory for a claimant to be examined by a company-designated physician within three days from his repatriation. The unexplained omission of this requirement will bar the filing of a claim for disability benefits. However, in submitting himself to examination by the company-designated physician, a claimant does not automatically bind himself to the medical report issued by the company-designated physician; neither are the labor tribunals and the courts bound by said medical report. Its inherent merit will be weighed and duly considered. Moreover, the claimant may dispute the medical report issued by the company-designated physician by seasonably consulting another physician. The medical report issued by said physician will also be evaluated by the labor tribunal and the court based on its inherent merits. (Emphasis in the original.) These being said, the Court shall thus evaluate the findings of petitioner’s physicians vis-a-vis the findings of the company-designated physician. As can be recalled, after two months of treatment from date of repatriation, petitioner was declared fit to return to work on August 25, 2000 by the company-designated physician. Said physician certified that with proper medication, petitioner’s hypertension appears to be “controlled” and that discontinuance of such medication may cause his blood pressure to again shoot up. As such, she recommended for petitioner to continue taking his medicines and to observe a low fat, low salt diet. However, after about five months or on January 11, 2001, petitioner consulted Dr. Vicaldo, a private physician at the Philippine Heart Center, who made the following elibrary.judiciary.gov.ph/thebookshelf/showdocsfriendly/1/54687 7/12