G.R. No. L-48580 July 6, 1990
Apolinario Kirit, Sr., et al., petitioners, vs. Government Service Insurance System (Department of Education and Culture) and Employees’ Compensation Commission, respondents.

FACTS

The late Eugenia A. Kirit was a classroom teacher assigned at Inalad Elementary School in Siaton, Negros Oriental. She was confined on March 25, 1976, due to pain in her left shoulder with accompanying numbness, and her ailments were diagnosed as “Osteoarthritis and Giant Cell Tumor, left humerus.” She died on July 1, 1976. Her husband, Apolinario Kirit, Sr., filed a claim for death benefits under Presidential Decree No. 626 (the Labor Code’s Employees’ Compensation Act) with the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS).
The GSIS denied the claim, stating that osteoarthritis and giant cell tumor are not occupational diseases and that the evidence failed to show the ailments directly resulted from her employment as a teacher. The Employees’ Compensation Commission (ECC) affirmed the denial on appeal, holding that both conditions are not listed occupational diseases. The ECC characterized osteoarthritis as often a result of the physiologic aging process and giant cell tumor as precipitated by extrinsic factors unrelated to employment.

ISSUE

The sole issue is whether the death of Eugenia Kirit, caused by osteoarthritis and/or giant cell tumor, is compensable under the employees’ compensation scheme of the Labor Code.

RULING

The Court ruled that the death is not compensable. The applicable law is the Labor Code, as the illness and death occurred after its effectivity on January 1, 1975. Under Article 167(1) of the Labor Code, for a sickness to be compensable, it must either be an occupational disease listed by the ECC, or the claimant must prove that the risk of contracting the illness was increased by the employee’s working conditions.
The Court emphasized that the presumptions of compensability and aggravation under the former Workmen’s Compensation Act no longer apply. Since osteoarthritis and giant cell tumor are not listed as occupational diseases, the burden shifted to the petitioners to present substantial evidence that the decedent’s working conditions as a teacher increased the risk of contracting these ailments. The Court found that the petitioners relied solely on inapplicable presumptions from the old law and failed to present any proof of work connection or increased risk. Consequently, without such requisite proof, the claim was correctly denied. The petition was dismissed and the decisions of the GSIS and ECC were affirmed.