BAGONG FILIPINAS OVERSEAS CORPORATION and GOLDEN STAR SHIPPING, LTD. vs.

NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS COMMISSION, PHILIPPINE OVERSEAS EMPLOYMENT

ADMINISTRATION, DIRECTOR PATRICIA SANTO TOMAS and PROSERFINA PANCHO
G.R. No. L-66006, February 28, 1985
AQUINO, J.

FACTS: Guillermo Pancho (Pancho) was hired by Golden Star Shipping (Hongkong based firm) through
its local agent Bagong Filipinas Overseas Corporation (Bagong Filipinas) as an oiler in M/V Olivine.
Pancho and Bagong Filipinas entered into a shipboard employment contract which was executed in the
Philippines and was approved by the National Seamen Board. While on board, Pancho suffered cerebral
stroke and was repatriated to the Philippines where he was confined in a hospital, but eventually expired.
The National Seamen Board awarded his widow, Proserfina Pancho a disability compensation based on the
said employment contract. On appeal, the NLRC awarded her compensation based on the Hongkong law
on workmen’s compensation. Thus, this petition by Golden Star Shipping arguing that the shipboard
employment contract shall be the basis of the award of death compensation.

ISSUE: Whether the shipboard employment contract or Hongkong law should govern the amount of death
compensation.

RULING: Shipboard employment contract.

The SC held that the shipboard employment contract is controlling in this case. The contract provides that
the beneficiaries of the seaman are entitled to P20,000 "over and above the benefits" for which the
Philippine Government is liable under Philippine law.

Hongkong law on workmen's compensation is not the applicable law. The case of Norse Management Co.
vs. National Seamen Board, G. R. No. 54204, September 30, 1982, 117 SCRA 486 cannot be a precedent
because it was expressly stipulated in the employment contract in that case that the workmen's
compensation payable to the employee should be in accordance with Philippine Law or the Workmen's
Insurance Law of the country where the vessel is registered "whichever is greater".