Case Digest: VIRGEN SHIPPING CORPORATION, et al. v. BARRAQUIO

VIRGEN SHIPPING CORPORATION, et al. v. JESUS B. BARRAQUIO

585 SCRA 541 (2009)

Resignation is defined as the voluntary act of an employee who finds himself in a situation where he believes that personal reasons cannot be sacrificed in favor of the exigency of the service and he has no other choice but to disassociate himself from his employment.

Odyssey Maritime, PTE. Ltd, through Virgen Shipping Corporation, hired respondent Jesus Barraquio as chief cook on board a vessel for a period of ten (10) months. A few days later, while the vessel was docked in Korea, Barraquio requested medical assistance and was diagnosed with suspected ischemic heart disease and hypertension. Subsequently, Barraquios wrote a letter to the captain informing them that he has decided to quit his job and will be joining the next disembarkation crew. He signed a

Statement of Account acknowledging set-off of his vacation leave pay from the cost of finding his replacement and the cost of repatriation.

A year later, Barraquio filed a complaint for non-payment of 120 days sickness allowance under Section 20 (B) paragraph 2 of the Standard Employment Contract for Seafarers, disability benefits, legal interest, reimbursement of medical expenses, and damages. Barraquio alleged that due to constant verbal abuse from the ship master, he suffered dizziness, chest pains, headaches and irregular sleep leading to hypertension; that he was forced to execute the request for disembarkation for fear that his health would worsen; and that medical findings that he was fit to sail is proof that his condition developed while on board.

The Labor Arbiter rendered judgment in favor of Barraquio finding the foreign principal and manning agency liable to pay to complainant his money claims. On appeal, the National Labor Relations Commission (NLRC) reversed the ruling of the Labor Arbiter and dismissed the complaint for lack of merit. They found Barraquio’s resignation voluntary; hence, he cannot claim entitlement to the benefits under the Standard Employment Contract of the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA). The Court of Appeals reversed the NLRC Decision in light of the observation that Barraquio’s hypertension probably developed while on board the vessel.

ISSUES:

Whether or not Barraquio voluntarily resigned

HELD:

From a considered review, the Court finds that Barraquio’s resignation was voluntary.

Resignation is defined as the voluntary act of an employee who finds himself in a situation where he believes that personal reasons cannot be sacrificed in favor of the exigency of the service and he has no other choice but to disassociate himself from his employment.

Barraquio’s resignation can be gleaned from the unambiguous terms of his letter to Captain Cristino.

Barraquio’s bare claim that he was forced to execute his resignation letter deserves no merit. Bare allegations of threat or force do not constitute substantial evidence to support a finding of forced resignation. That such claim was proferred a year later all the more renders his contention bereft of merit.

Barraquio claims entitlement under Section 20 (B) [2] of the Standard Employment Contract of the POEA, which must be read in conjunction with Section 20 (B) [3]. The provision requires Barraquio to submit himself to a post-medical employment examination by a company designated physician within three working days from arrival or, in Barraquio’s case, three working days after May 15, 2000, a Monday, when he arrived by ship or not later than May 18, 2000. Barraquio sought examination-treatment on May 17 – June 30, 2000 from Dr. Romina Alpasan who appears to be a physician of his choice. He only tried to look for a company-designated physician after treatment by Dr. Alpasan. Clearly, he did not comply with the 3-day requirement to seek the services of a company-designated physician for purposes of post-employment medical examination.

Barraquio goes on to claim that he underwent treatment for Ischemic heart disease which developed while employed by petitioners. Ischemic heart disease is a condition in which fatty deposits (atheroma) accumulate in the cells lining the wall of the coronary arteries. These fatty deposits build up gradually and irregularly, however, in the large branches of the two main coronary arteries which encircle the heart and are the main source of its blood supply. This process, called atherosclerosis, leads to narrowing or hardening of the blood vessels supplying blood to the heart muscle (the coronary arteries) resulting in ischemia – or the inability to provide adequate oxygen – to heart muscle and this can cause damage to the heart muscle. Complete occlusion of the blood vessel leads to a heart attack.

Finally, Barraquio claims that in light of the opinion of the physician in Korea that he had ―suspected ischemic heart,‖ petitioners affirmed his medical repatriation. As reflected in the immediately preceding paragraph, however, ischemic heart disease cannot develop in a short span of time that Barraquio served as chief cook for Virgin Shipping. In fact, as indicated above, the Gleneagles Maritime Medical Centre doctor who treated respondent in May 2000 for abscess in his left hand had noted respondent’s ―[h]istory of hypertension for 3 years.‖ Moreover, the Korean physician did not make any recommendation as to respondent’s bill of health for petitioners to assume that he was fit for repatriation.