4/29/2020 E-Library - Information At Your Fingertips: Printer Friendly board the vessel every single day.[31] Accordingly, if serious doubt exists on the company-designated physician's declaration of the nature of a seaman's injury and its corresponding impediment grade, resort to prognosis of other competent medical professionals should be made. In doing so, a seaman should be given the opportunity to assert his claim after proving the nature of his injury. These pieces of evidence will in turn be used to determine the benefits rightfully accruing to him.[32] It bears to note, at this juncture, that this Court is aware of its ruling in Vergara v. Hammonia Maritime Services, Inc.[33], wherein it sustained the findings of the company-designated physician vis-a-vis the contrary opinion of the doctors consulted by the seafarer. This Court so ruled on two basic grounds. First, the seafarer failed to follow the procedure outlined in the Standard Employment Contract he signed, wherein it was provided that if a doctor appointed by the seafarer disagrees with the assessment of the company-designated physician, a third doctor may be agreed upon jointly between the employer and the seafarer and the third doctor's decision shall be final and binding on both parties. This Court held that, for failure of the seafarer to follow this procedure, the company doctor's determination should prevail, especially in view of the fact that the company exerted real effort to provide the seafarer with medical assistance, through the company-designated physician, which eventually led to the seafarer's full recovery. Second, the seafarer never raised the issue of the company-designated doctor's competence until he filed a petition with this Court. On the contrary, he accepted the company doctor's assessment of his fitness and even executed a certification to this effect. The above factual circumstances, however, are not on all fours with the facts obtaining in the instant case. First, the procedure outlined above, which was derived from Department Order No. 4, Series of 2000, is not the same as the procedure outlined in Memorandum Circular No. 55, Series of 1996, which embodies the Standard Employment Contract between petitioner and respondent. Notably, there is nothing in the said circular which provides that in case of conflict between the findings of the company-designated physician and the seafarer's doctor of choice, the parties may agree to consult a third doctor, whose opinion shall bind both parties. The provision authorizing the parties to ask the opinion of a third doctor is an innovation which was added in the subsequent Standard Employment Contract provided for under Department Order No. 4, Series of 2000. Thus, being governed by the 1996 Standard Employment Contract, it cannot be said that petitioner failed to follow the procedure outlined under the 2000 Standard Employment Contract. Moreover, in Vergara, the Court relied on the findings of the company-designated physician because the medical attention given by the company to the seafarer led to the seafarer's full recovery. This is not so in the present case. Petitioner remains unfit to perform his job as a ship's chief officer. Second, unlike in Vergara, petitioner timely questioned the competence of the company-designated physician by immediately consulting two independent doctors. Neither did he sign nor execute any document agreeing with the findings of the elibrary.judiciary.gov.ph/thebookshelf/showdocsfriendly/1/55611 6/11