GR 44597; (December, 1980) (Digest)
G.R. No. L-44597 December 29, 1980
Correa A. Ajero, petitioner, vs. Employees Compensation Commission and Government Service Insurance System (Bureau of Public Schools, Albay), respondents.
FACTS
Correa A. Ajero served as a classroom teacher for thirty-five years with the Bureau of Public Schools in Albay. While still employed, she contracted Pulmonary Tuberculosis and Cancer of the Breast, leading to her confinement at the GSIS Hospital in January 1976. Due to her worsening condition and inability to perform her duties, her application for total and permanent disability retirement benefits under Commonwealth Act No. 186 was approved by the GSIS Medical Director in March 1975.
Subsequently, Ajero filed a separate claim for income benefits under the Employees’ Compensation Act (Presidential Decree No. 626). The GSIS denied this claim on September 16, 1975, ruling that her ailments were not occupational diseases and thus not compensable. The Employees’ Compensation Commission (ECC) affirmed this denial, holding that Cancer of the Breast is not listed as an occupational disease and that her duties as a teacher did not increase the risk of contracting it. For Pulmonary Tuberculosis, the ECC found it non-compensable as her work did not involve the close contact with tuberculosis sources required by the rules, such as in medical or laboratory settings.
ISSUE
Whether the petitioner’s ailments, particularly Pulmonary Tuberculosis, are compensable under the Employees’ Compensation Act.
RULING
The Supreme Court reversed the decision of the ECC and granted the claim, specifically for Pulmonary Tuberculosis. The Court rejected the ECC’s rigid application of the listed occupational diseases and its requirement for direct proof of increased risk. It emphasized that under the prevailing legal principles, an illness that supervenes during employment is disputably presumed to be work-related.
The Court provided a realistic appraisal of a teacher’s working conditions, recognizing Pulmonary Tuberculosis as an occupational hazard of the profession. Teachers are in constant contact with students, some of whom may carry communicable diseases like tuberculosis. Their duties extend beyond the classroom, involving supervision of projects and exposure to the elements. Coupled with the physical exhaustion, stress, and often meager income affecting their health and nutrition, these conditions directly increase the risk of contracting such a disease. The Court noted that tuberculosis develops over years, and given Ajero’s 35-year service, it likely supervened during her employment when the more liberal Workmen’s Compensation Act was still in force. Therefore, the illness was compensable. The GSIS was ordered to pay disability benefits and attorney’s fees.