Source: http://lawlibrary.chanrobles.com/index.php?option=com_content&amp;view=article&amp;id=50093:gr-148308-2007&amp;catid=1496&amp;Itemid=566
Timestamp: 2019-04-26 03:52:49+00:00

Document:
G.R. No. 148308 - Roberto D. Debaudln v. Social Security System, et al.
ROBERTO D. DEBAUDIN, Petitioner, v. SOCIAL SECURITY SYSTEM (SSS) and EMPLOYEES COMPENSATION COMMISSION (ECC), Respondents.
This Petition for Certiorari under Rule 45 of the Rules on Civil Procedure seeks to review the August 17, 1999 Decision1 and May 18, 2001 Resolution2 of the Court of Appeals (CA) in CA-G.R. SP No. 44670 which affirmed respondents Social Security System (SSS) and Employees Compensation Commission (ECC) in denying petitioner's claim for compensation benefits under Presidential Decree (P.D.) No. 626, as amended.
During his eighteen (18) years of service with UPL, he boarded various foreign ocean-going vessels4 while performing his duties and responsibilities that included cleaning chemical-spill-oil on deck, slat dislodging, and spraying naphtha chemical and washing dirt and rusts inside the tank.
Definitely, [petitioner's] Chronic Open Angle Glaucoma is not an occupational disease under the law. Thus, he is required to show by substantial evidence that the nature of his job as a Seaman had increased the risk of contracting the disease. However, appellant failed to discharge the burden of proof required by the law.
Based on medical findings, Open Angle Glaucoma arises as a complication of chronic obstruction of aqueous humor reabsorption in the trabecular meshwork. It is usually asymptomatic and only rarely causes ocular pain or corneal edema. The treatment is primarily medical. Surgery to prevent permanent visual loss is necessary in only a minority of patients (Ref.: Harrison's Principles of Internal Medicine, 11th edition, p. 71).
Petitioner's motion for reconsideration was subsequently denied;12 hence, this recourse.
In fine, petitioner stresses that, as a social legislation, P.D. No. 626, as amended, should be interpreted to give meaning and substance to the liberal and compassionate spirit of the 1987 Constitution and the Labor Code.
Under the Labor Code, as amended, an employee is entitled to compensation benefits if the sickness is a result of an occupational disease listed under Annex "A" of the Rules on Employees' Compensation; or in case of any other illness, if it is caused by employment, subject to proof that the risk of contracting the same is increased by the working conditions.14 This is as it should be because for an illness to be compensable, it must be (1) directly caused by such employment; (2) aggravated by the employment; or (3) the result of the nature of such employment.15 Jurisprudence provides that to establish compensability of a non-occupational disease, reasonable proof of work-connection and not direct causal relation is required.16 It is enough that the hypothesis on which the workmen's claim is based is probable.17 Probability, not the ultimate degree of certainty, is the test of proof in compensation proceedings18 since in carrying out and interpreting the provisions of the Labor Code and its implementing rules and regulations the primordial and paramount consideration is the employees' welfare.
In the present case, petitioner's chronic open angle glaucoma is not listed as an occupational disease; hence, he has the burden of proving by substantial evidence, or such relevant evidence which a reasonable mind might accept as adequate to justify a conclusion, that the nature of his employment or working conditions increased the risk of contracting the ailment or that its progression or aggravation was brought about thereby.
Perusal of the records, however, regrettably reveals petitioner's failure to adduce any proof of a reasonable connection between his work as a seaman and the chronic open angle glaucoma he had contracted. At the most, he merely claims that he performed odd jobs without fail - cleaning chemical-spill-oil on deck, slat dislodging, and spraying naphtha chemical and washing dirt and rusts inside the tank - strenuous tasks which according to him required climbing, bending over and running for so many times. Adding thereto were the perils of the sea and the homesickness he said he experienced which allegedly caused emotional strains on his part.
The necessity of establishing the supposed work connection is all the more crucial in the face of the fact that the readily-available medical literature would appear to consistently indicate that open angle glaucoma is brought about by several factors other than the purported "physical and emotional strains," such as aging, race, family history, nearsightedness or farsightedness, prolonged corticosteroid use, nutritional deficiencies, brain chemical abnormalities, injuries, infection or abnormalities in the eye, and medical conditions such as diabetes, high blood pressure or heart disease.20 Therefore, to easily attribute to the "physical and emotional strains" allegedly attendant in petitioner's job as a seaman the chronic open angle glaucoma he is currently suffering is evidently to oversimplify an otherwise complex fact-finding process that should have taken place to determine the true cause of the ailment.
In Sante v. Employees' Compensation Commission,21 this Court ruled that "' a claimant must submit such proof as would constitute a reasonable basis for concluding either that the conditions of employment of the claimant caused the ailment or that such working conditions had aggravated the risk of contracting that ailment. What kind and quantum of evidence would constitute an adequate basis for a reasonable man (not necessarily a medical scientist) to reach one or the other conclusion, can obviously be determined only on a case-to-case basis. That evidence must, however, be real and substantial, and not merely apparent; for the duty to prove work-causation or work-aggravation imposed by existing law is real - not merely apparent."
WHEREFORE, the petition is DENIED. The August 17, 1999 Decision and May 18, 2001 Resolution of the Court of Appeals are hereby AFFIRMED.
1 Penned by Associate Justice Fermin A. Martin, Jr., with Associate Justices Presbitero J. Velasco, Jr. (now Supreme Court Associate Justice) and B.A. Adefuin De la Cruz concurring.
3 CA rollo, pp. 22-23.
6 ECC records (not paginated).
9 CA rollo, pp. 19-20.
14 GSIS v. Cuanang, G.R. No. 158846, June 3, 2004, 430 SCRA 639, 648.
15 Loyola v. GSIS, G.R. No. 89097, August 24, 1990, 189 SCRA 82, 85.
16 GSIS v. Court of Appeals, 417 Phil. 102, 109 (2001).
17 Castor-Garupa v. ECC, G.R. No. 158268, April 12, 2006 and GSIS v. Valenciano, G.R. No. 168821, April 10, 2006.
18 GSIS v. Cuanang, Supra note 14 at 646, citing Philippine Transmarine Carriers, Inc. v. NLRC, G.R. No. 123891, February 28, 2001, 353 SCRA 47, 53.
19 Raro v. ECC, G.R. No. 58445, April 27, 1989, 172 SCRA 845, 849, as cited in Orate v. Court of Appeals, 447 Phil 654, 666 (2003); RiÃ±o v. Employees' Compensation Commission, 387 Phil. 612, 620 (2000); Librea v. ECC, G.R. No. 58879, March 6, 1992, 207 SCRA 45, 48; and Sante v. Employees' Compensation Commission, G.R. No. 84415, June 29, 1989, 174 SCRA 557, 562.
20 http://www.medicinenet.com/glaucoma/page2.htm (visited on September 7, 2007); http://www.webmd.com/eye-health/glaucoma-eyes?page=2&print=true (visited on September 7, 2007); http://www.docshop.com/education/vision/eye-diseases/glaucoma/causes (visited on September 7, 2007); http://www.mayoclinic.com/print/glaucoma/DS00283/DSECTION=all& METHOD=print (visited on September 5, 2007); http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/print/ency/ article/001620.htm. (visited on September 5, 2007); http://www.umm.edu/ency/article/001620.htm (visited on September 5, 2007); http://www.emedicine.com/oph/byname/glaucoma-primary-open-angle.htm (visited on September 5, 2007); and http://www.visionrx.com/library/enc/enc_ oaglaucoma.asp?print=1& (visited on September 5, 2007).
21 Supra note 19 at 565.
22 357 Phil. 511 (1998).

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