BY HERBERT VEGO
MARITIME manning agencies in the Philippines – as this column has shown in a number of compensation claims filed by disabled Filipino seamen against ship owners – tend to favor their foreign principals more than their hired Filipino seamen.
While it sounds unpatriotic, it’s not really ironic because the agency is also a co-respondent in any labor case; and it’s the principal who is the common source of income of both agent and seafarer.
A case in point is that of an Ilonggo chief cook, Romeo Nuñez Jr., who boarded the Liberian tanker M/T Gas Diana as chief cook on an eight-month contract with NYK Shipping Agency after passing the compulsory pre-employment medical examination and getting a “fit to work” certification from the company-authorized doctor.
While the ship was navigating to South Korea, Nuñez complained of agonizing headache. On arrival in Korea, he was wheeled to the nearest hospital for treatment at company expense. A doctor there prescribed medicine but at the same time advised the ship management to repatriate him to the Philippines for thorough treatment.
He boarded the first available flight to Manila. A team of attendants fetched him at the airport and brought him to the Metropolitan Medical Center for confinement and evaluation.
A biopsy of the painful portion of an ear showed that patient was suffering from “chronic sialadenitis with submandibular mass” that had to be operated on immediately. Otherwise, he would lose his sense of hearing and taste. In the long run, the disease could be fatal.
A surgeon familiar with that rare condition performed “parotidectomy.”
While the surgery was successful, Nuñez became hearing-impaired. That handicap was enough to bar him from resuming sea work.
What more could he ask for but total and permanent disability benefits?
“No,” a representative of his agency candidly told him, “you cannot claim disability benefits because your disease is chronic, therefore not work-related.”
Sure as he was that he had acquired the disease while on board the ship, Nuñez sought the advice of the Free Legal Assistance for Seafarers (FLAS) at its office on U.N. Avenue. No less than Atty. Pete Linsangan, FLAS’ head lawyer, took up the cudgels for him before the National Labor Relations Commission (NLRC).
The defense lawyer moved for the dismissal of the complaint on the ground that compensation claimant’s disease, chronic sialadenitis, was not among those listed as “occupational diseases” under Section 32 of the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) standard employment contract.
Atty. Linsangan, on the other hand, argued that, as the medical records indicate, his client’s disease was associated with conditions linked to decreased salivary flow. The nature of his work as ship cook had caused the impairment of his salivary glands.
The story had a happy ending with the NLRC ruling in favor of cook Romeo Nuñez Jr., obliging shipping agent and principal to award him with total and permanent disability benefits in the amount of US $78,750 or its equivalent in Philippine currency.
Seamen with more or less the same compensation problem with their employer may likewise consult FLAS free of charge. Failure to assert their right to final compensation could be disastrous, dooming them into penury. FLAS has an office at GSAT, 2nd Flr., Jamerlan Bldg., Iznart St., Iloilo City. It also hosts the radio program “Tribuna sang Banwa” on Aksyon Radyo-Iloilo every Sunday, 12:30 p.m. 1:30 p.m. Program host Neri Camiña may be contacted by cell phone number 09173288742./PN
