1/5/2021 E-Library - Information At Your Fingertips: Printer Friendly 11. The assessment was issued within 240 days from the time he got repatriated, thus, the same negates petitioner's claim for permanent total disability compensation. Besides, disability benefits are not dependent on the loss of a seafarer's earning capacity but on the degree of illness suffered. Core Issue Is petitioner entitled to permanent total disability benefits? Ruling Orient Hope Agencies, Inc. v . Jara[18] set out the following guidelines to determine a seafarer's disability, viz. : 1. The company-designated physician must issue a final medical assessment on the seafarer's disability grading within a period of 120 days from the time the seafarer reported to him· 2. If the company-designated physician fails to give his assessment within the period of 120 days, without any justifiable reason, then the seafarer's disability becomes permanent and total; 3. If the company-designated physician fails to give his assessment within the period of 120 days with a sufficient justification (e.g. seafarer required further medical treatment or seafarer was uncooperative), then the period of diagnosis and treatment shall be extended to 240 days. The employer has the burden to prove that the companydesignated physician has sufficient justification to extend the period; and 4. If the company-designated physician still fails to give his assessment within the extended period of 240 days, then the seafarer's disability becomes permanent and total, regardless of any justification .[19] Based thereon, two (2) requisites must concur for a determination of a seafarer's medical condition: 1) an assessment must be issued within the 120/240 window, and 2) the assessment must be final and definitive. Thus, Orient Hope aptly held: While the assessment of a company-designated physician vis-a-vis the schedule of disabilities under the POEA-SEC is the basis for compensability of a seafarer's disability , it is still subject to the periods prescribed in the law. x x x [20] Here, petitioner was repatriated on May 23, 2014. After undergoing medical treatment, the company-designated physician issued an interim Grade 11 disability on September 24, 2014. Petitioner's back pain persisted which required him to continue with his medical treatment. Per Medical Report dated October 3, 2014, the company-designated physician issued petitioner a final disability grading of 11, 133 days since he got evaluated. Indeed, the diagnosis was laid down within the extended period of 240 days. https://elibrary.judiciary.gov.ph/thebookshelf/showdocsfriendly/1/65937 4/8