In Government Service Insurance System v. Court of Appeals,
this Court comprehensively discussed the principles and policies of
the existing compensation law, P.D. No. 626, as amended, viz:
[9]
At the outset, certain basic postulates governing employees
compensation benefits under P.D. No. 626 need be reviewed. First,
said Decree abandoned the presumption of compensability and the
theory of aggravation under the Workmens Compensation
Act. Second, for the sickness and resulting disability or death to
be compensable, the claimant must prove either of two (2)
things: (a) that the sickness was the result of an occupational
disease listed under Annex A of the Rules on Employees
Compensation; or (b) if the sickness is not so listed, that the risk
of contracting the disease was increased by the claimants working
conditions. Third, the claimant must prove this causal relation
between the ailment and working conditions by substantial
evidence , since the proceeding is taken before the ECC, an
administrative or quasi-judicial body. Within the field of
administrative law, while strict rules of evidence are not applicable
to quasi-judicial proceedings, nevertheless, in adducing evidence
constitutive of substantial evidence, the basic rule that mere
allegation is not evidence cannot be disregarded. Finally, in case of
doubt in construction and interpretation of social legislation
statutes, the liberality of the law in favor of the working man and
woman prevails in light of the Constitutions social justice policy.
On the other side of the coin, however, there is a competing,
yet equally vital interest to heed in passing upon undeserving claims
for compensation. It is well to remember that if diseases not
intended by the law to be compensated are inadvertently or
recklessly included, the integrity of the State Insurance Fund is
endangered. Compassion for the victims of diseases not covered by
the law ignores the need to show a greater concern for the trust fund
to which the tens of millions of workers and their families look to
for compensation whenever covered accidents, diseases and deaths
occur. This stems from the development in the law that no longer
is the poor employee still arrayed against the might and power of
his rich corporate employer, hence the necessity of affording all
kinds of favorable presumptions to the employee. This reasoning
is no longer good policy. It is now the trust fund and not the
employer which suffers if benefits are paid to claimants who are not
entitled under the law. The employer joins the employee in trying to
have their claims approved. The employer is spared the problem of
proving a negative proposition that the disease was not caused by
employment. Moreover, the new system instituted by the new law