In order to claim disability benefits under the Standard Employment Contract, it
is the “company-designated” physician who must proclaim that the seaman
suffered a permanent disability, whether total or partial, due to either injury or
illness, during the term of the latter’s employment. It is a cardinal rule in the
interpretation of contracts that if the terms of a contract are clear and leave no
doubt upon the intention of the contracting parties, the literal meaning of its
stipulation shall control. There is no ambiguity in the wording of the Standard
Employment Contract – the only qualification prescribed for the physician
entrusted with the task of assessing the seaman’s disability is that he be
“company-designated.”
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[E]ven private respondent’s co-employee Oiler Henry Santos stated in his letter
to the Master of the vessel that private respondent could not eat and sleep
because of a family problem. X x x.
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From the foregoing disquisitions, private respondent is neither entitled to a total
and permanent disability of US$60,000.00 nor to attorney’s fees of
US$6,000.00. Petitioners did not act with gross or evident bad faith in denying
the claim of private respondent. Thus, We find that the NLRC (Sixth Division)
acted with grave abuse of discretion in dismissing petitioner’s appeal, affirming
the Decision of Labor Arbiter Cellan, and denying petitioners’ Motion for
Reconsideration.
While it is true that labor contracts are impressed with public interest and the
provisions of the POEA Standard Employment Contract must be construed fairly,
reasonably and liberally in favor of Filipino seamen in the pursuit of their
employment on board ocean-going vessels, we should always be mindful that
justice is in every case for the deserving, to be dispensed with in the light of
established facts, the applicable law, and existing jurisprudence. x x x.