Gloria D.

Menes
-versusEmployees Compensation Commission & Government Service Insurance System
[G.R. No. L-48488 25 April 1980]
FACTS:
Petition for review on certiorari of the Employees Compensation Commission (ECC) affirming
the denial by the GSIS of the petitioners claim for benefits under P.D. 626 1 and dismissing
said claim.
Petitioner, Gloria D. Menes, was a Ministry of Education and Culture (MEC)-employed school
teacher for 32 years and was assigned in Raja Soliman High School, Tondo-Binondo, Manila
just before her retirement on 21 August 1975. She had opted to retire early due to her
rheumatoid arthritis pain and bronchiectasis2 with hemoptysis3 related to long-term
pneumonitis4.
21 October 1976, petitioner filed for a disability benefits under P.D. 626 with GSIS.
25 October 1976, GSIS denied said claim on the ground that rheumatoid arthritis and
pneumonitis are not occupational diseases5 related to her line of work.
24 November 1976, petitioner requested for a reconsideration of the denied claim;
contending that her ailments arose in the course of employment and were aggravated by
the conditions of the work place and the nature of her work. GSIS denied her claim again,
reiterating their previous decision.
7 March 1977, petitioner again requested for a reconsideration of her second denied claim
but GSIS once more denied it. Responded GSIS then elevated the records to the ECC for
review.
1 March 1978, ECC issued a decision affirming the decision of the GSIS.
ISSUE:Whether petitioner, Gloria Menes, is entitled to disability benefits from respondent GSIS.
HELD: Supreme Court declared:
Wherefore, the decision of the ECC is hereby set aside and the MEC is hereby ordered:
1) To pay petitioner the sum of Php6,000.00 as disability income benefits; and
2) To reimburse petitioners medical and hospital expenses duly supported by receipts.
RATIO:
Yes, Gloria Menes is entitled to disability benefits. All public high school
teachers are admittedly the most underpaid and overworked employees of the government; they
are subject to emotional strains and stresses, dealing with teenagers and harassed as they are by
various extra-curricular or non-academic assignments, aside from preparing lesson plans until late
at night, if they are not badgered by very demanding superiors. In the case of the petitioner, her
emotional tension is heightened by the fact that she teaches in a tough-situated area: Binondo

1 It is now the Title II of the New Labor Code

2 There is an abnormal dilation of airways in the lungs, causing excessive mucus production.
3 It is the coughing up of blood from the respiratory tract.
4 There is inflammation of the lungs caused by a virus or an allergic reaction
5 Occupational Disease is one which develops as a result of hazards particular to certain occupations, due to toxic
substances, radiation, repeated mechanical injury, emotional strain, etc. (Schmidts Attorneys Dictionary of Medicine)

district, which is inhabited by thugs and other criminal elements and further aggravated by the
heavy pollution and congestion therein as well as the stinking smell of the dirty Estero de la Reina
nearby. Women, like herein petitioner, are most vulnerable to such unhealthy conditions. The pitiful
situation of all public school teachers is further accentuated by poor diet for they can ill-afford
nutritiously-balanced meals and would resort to poor mans staple diet of tuyo, daing, mongo and
rice. Furthermore, judicial notice should be taken of the fact that our country is in a typhoon belt
and that annually we experience torrential storms. The petitioner would go through the ordeal of
perspiring and getting drenched from downpours in her daily commute from home to school and
vice versa. Petitioner is also in contact with at least 250 students everyday who might be carriers of
contagious disease, which would be a factor as to how she got her ailments.
Dissenting opinion of Melencio-Herrera:
Petitioner retired due to rheumatoid arthritis and pneumonitis. Those ailments are not listed as occupational
diseases. Nor is there adequate proof that the risk of contracting them was increased by conditions under which petitioner
worked in fact, in so far as rheumatoid arthritis is concerned, it has been described as a chronic systematic inflammatory
disease of unknown cause. It is also a disease that is worlds apart from acute arthritis.