People Powwow: Post-work disease may still be work-related

By HERBERT VEGO

WHY are seamen limited to a contractual tenure of 12 months or less?

For one reason, they need to enjoy vacation with their families. For another, sea work is stressful and exhausting.

In the case of chief cook Ariel Morales, he was not allowed to enjoy a vacation at the end of his contract – what with his employer prevailing upon him to sign a renewal of contract. He signed what would later turn out to be his last but unserved contract.

The end for Morales began when he finished serving his nine-month contract with Western Shipping Southeast Asia, Inc. He arrived in Manila on September 2, 2012, intending to immediately motor to his family in Guagua, Pampanga.

Before he could do so, however, his bosses in Manila asked him to renew his contract at once because they had found nobody to take over his job as chief cook in the same ship, which would sail from Singapore on September 9.

To fulfill a boarding requisite, he underwent and passed the pre-employment medical examination at Lazo Clinic in Manila on September 3.

Despite the brief time gap between his arrival and his departure, he spent everyday commuting between Manila and Guagua.

Early afternoon of September 9, Morales called his wife Lita in Guagua to inform her that he had arrived at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) to board the plane that would fly him to New York, where he would reboard his ship as chief cook.

At about 3 p.m., Mrs. Lita Morales received another telephone call, this time from a certain Jennifer of Western Shipping. Her bad news was that her husband had not yet entered the pre-departure area of the airport; and that she could not reach him by phone.

Lita then attempted to call her husband. His phone rang unanswered. She worried that something wrong had happened to him.

At 4:40 p.m., a time when the airplane was boarding passengers, Lita picked up her ringing cell phone nervously. But with her husband’s name flashed on the screen, she broke into a smile and heaved a sigh.

“Dad, you’re boarding the plane?” she asked excitedly.

Joy turned into remorse when the voice that answered was not her husband’s.

“He will call you later,” the gravelly voice on the line quipped. No other word was spoken.

What came next was a text message from her husband’s phone informing her that hubby Ariel had been rushed to a hospital. He had collapsed while buying “load” for his cell phone at the airport.

Ariel Morales reached the Las Piñas Golden Acres Doctors Hospital in an ambulance. He was pronounced “dead on arrival” due to heart attack.

Adding insult to injury, nobody from the shipping agency condoled with the bereaved family during the wake in Guagua, Pampanga; not even in the interment.

On September 21, 2012, with the help of the Free Legal Assistance for Seafarers (FLAS) spearheaded by Atty. Pete Linsangan, Lita Morales filed a claim for death benefits before the National Labor Relations Commission (NLRC).

NLRC ruled in favor of the widow, noting that the unexpected demise of the victim was clearly work-related; and that the shipping agency should have allowed Morales to enjoy vacation with his family instead of re-hiring him, considering that he had just disembarked after serving a nine-month contract.
The NLRC, in its decision, ordered Western Shipping to pay the widow US $51,000 in death and burial benefits, plus $28,000 to each of their four minor children.

Incidentally, the Free Legal Assistance for Seafarers (FLAS) hosts the radio program “Tribuna sang Banwa” on Aksyon Radyo-Iloilo everySunday, 12:30 to 1:30 p.m. It is hosted by Neri Camiña, who may be contacted through cellular phone number 09173288742./PN