6/5/2020 E-Library - Information At Your Fingertips: Printer Friendly 6. In case of permanent total or partial disability of the seafarer caused by either injury or illness the seafarer shall be compensated in accordance with the schedule of benefits arising from an illness or disease shall be governed by the rates and the rules of compensation applicable at the time the illness or disease was contracted.[13] The CA cited Maersk Filipinas Crewing, Inc./Maersk Services Ltd. v. Mesina[14] on what constitutes permanent as well as total disability, thus: Permanent disability is inability of a worker to perform his job for more than 120 days, regardless of whether or not he loses the use of any part of his body. Total disability, on the other hand, means the disablement of an employee to earn wages in the same kind of work of similar nature that he was trained for, or accustomed to perform, or any kind of work which a person of his mentality and attainments could do. A total disability does not require that the employee be completely disabled, or totally paralyzed. What is necessary is that the injury must be such that the employee cannot pursue his or her usual work and earn from it. A total disability is considered permanent if it lasts continuously for more than 120 days.[15] (Italics ours) In concluding that Camoral’s disability is permanent and total, the CA noted that “he became unfit to continue the same kind of work he was hired for by the [p]etitioners for more than 120 days as also established by the findings and recommendations made by the company doctors and by Dr. Catapang, the private physician whom private respondent hired.”[16] The CA also held that while under Section 32 of the POEA SEC, only injuries or disabilities classified as Grade 1 may be considered as total and permanent, if, however, even with a disability grading from 2 to 14, hence, partial and permanent, the seafarer is incapacitated to perform his usual sea duties for more than 120 days or 240 days, depending on the need for further medical treatment, under legal contemplation he is totally and permanently disabled. The CA further said that “an impediment should be characterized as partial and permanent not only under the Schedule of Disabilities found in Section 32 of the [POEA SEC] but should be so under the relevant provisions of the Labor Code and the Amended Rules on Employee Compensation (AREC) implementing Title II, Book IV of the Labor Code.”[17] In contrast, the CA cited Article 192(c)(1) of the Labor Code expressly granting to Camoral total permanent disability: Art. 192 (c). The following disabilities shall be deemed total and permanent: (1) Temporary total disability lasting continuously for more than one hundred twenty days, except as otherwise provided for in the Rules[.] xxxx elibrary.judiciary.gov.ph/thebookshelf/showdocsfriendly/1/59517 7/12