5/28/2020 E-Library - Information At Your Fingertips: Printer Friendly work-related or not. As explained in Jebsens Maritime, Inc. v. Undag:[28] The rationale behind the rule can easily be divined. Within three days from repatriation, it would be fairly easier for a physician to determine if the illness was work-related or not. After that period, there would be difficulty in ascertaining the real cause of the illness. To ignore the rule would set a precedent with negative repercussions because it would open the floodgates to a limitless number of seafarers claiming disability benefits. It would certainly be unfair to the employer who would have difficulty determining the cause of a claimant’s illness considering the passage of time. In such a case, the employers would have no protection against unrelated disability claims.[29] Equally outlined in the provision is the single instance which exempts a medially repatriated seafarer from complying with the 3-day mandatory reporting rule that is – when he is physically incapacitated to do so, in which case a written notice of such fact to the employer within the same period shall be deemed as sufficient compliance. We applied the exemption in Wallem Maritime Services, Inc. v. NLRC[30] and excused the failure of the seafarer to report within the three-day period for the reason that when he disembarked from the vessel, he was terminally ill and in need of urgent medical attention. His employer manning agency was also found sufficiently notified when his wife went to the office a month later to inquire about his husband’s sickness benefits.[31] The very same circumstances exist in the present factual setting. When Margarito was repatriated on September 6, 2006 he was already suffering from “Renal Insufficiency: Diabetes Mellitus; IHD Blood+CBC+Anemia.” Less than a week thereafter, he was confined at the Las Piñas Doctor’s Hospital for the same ailment of renal insufficiency but this time aggravated by coronary artery disease. He started undergoing hemodialysis treatments in December when his ailment worsened to end stage renal disease due to a cyst at the right renal cortical. He became bedridden thereafter until he passed away on September 11, 2007. The medical episodes that transpired after his disembarkation from the vessel show that he was already in a deteriorating physical condition when he arrived in the Philippines. Thus, it cannot be reasonably expected of him to prioritize the errand of personally reporting to the petitioners’ office instead of yielding to the physical strain caused by his serious health problems. The petitioners were likewise put on sufficient notice about the failing health condition of Margarito because they knew very well that he was diagnosed with a serious illness in UAE. Notwithstanding the fact that Priscila’s claim of notice to petitioners through a certain Allan Lopez was unsubstantiated by any documentary or other corroborative evidence, the petitioners were nonetheless aware that Margarito was seriously ill as elibrary.judiciary.gov.ph/thebookshelf/showdocsfriendly/1/57272 7/16