The Supreme Court has ruled that benefits arising from a seafarer’s death, under the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) contract, should be awarded only to the surviving legitimate spouse, despite being long estranged from the seafarer, alongside the legitimate and illegitimate children.
Thus held the SC Third Division in a decision penned by Associate Justice Alfredo Benjamin Caguioa ordering the release of death benefits due the heirs of a deceased seafarer, who died onboard a vessel. His death benefits amounted to P4,506,309.52, the only property he left upon his death.
A petition for the settlement of the seafarer’s estate was then filed before a Regional Trial Court, which ruled that the death benefits formed part of his estate and that under POEA Memorandum Circular No. 10, series of 2010 (POEA MC), they shall be divided among the beneficiaries in accordance with the rules on succession.
The Supreme Court, however, held that the death benefits do not form part of the seafarer’s estate, adding that under Article 781 of the Civil Code, what forms part of the estate is property existing at the time of death.
As to the division of the proceeds from the death benefits, Section 20.B.(3) of the POEA MC states that benefits for the seafarer’s death are payable to the seafarer’s beneficiaries consistent with the rules of succession under the Civil Code.
Such benefits are payable to the legal heirs, not as inheritance but as proceeds from a death benefit, the SC PIO press release said July 2.
The beneficiaries, however, must be determined in accordance with the rules of compulsory and intestate succession, it added.
The SC said that, unlike the Social Security Act, Government Service Insurance System law, and the Workmen’s Compensation Act, the POEA MC does not apply the test of dependency in determining the qualified beneficiary. However, this perceived gap in the law is for Congress to address, not the Court.
As to the distribution of the benefits among the legal heirs, the SC clarified that when the concurring primary compulsory heirs are the surviving spouse, one legitimate child, and illegitimate children, Article 892 of the Civil Code shall apply, subject to Article 895 of the same law, as amended by Article 176 of the Family Code.
Under Article 892, if only one legitimate child survives, the surviving spouse shall be entitled to one-fourth of the estate. On the other hand, Article 895, as amended by the Family Code, provides that if illegitimate children survive with legitimate children, the shares for each of the former shall consist of one-half of the share of each legitimate child, provided that the share of the surviving spouse must first be fully satisfied.
The SC also stressed that the correct approach would be to determine and satisfy first the share of each legitimate child/ren, then the share of the surviving spouse in relation to the number of legitimate kids. Finally, the share of the illegitimate child/ren will be taken from the remaining free portion of the hereditary estate. ||
