This is a petition to review the decision of the Employees' Compensation Commission in ECC Case No. 0009 (Jose P. Torbela, Deceased) entitled "Exaltacion Vda. de Torbela, Appellant, versus, Government Service Insurance System" affirming the decision of the Government Service Insurance System which denied the claim of Exaltacion Vda. de Torbela on the ground that the death of her husband, Jose P. Torbela, Sr., is not compensable."^[1]

The petitioner, Exaltacion Vda. de Torbela, filed a claim for compensation dated March 20, 1975 with Regional Office VII, Workmen's Compensation Unit, Iloilo City, for the death of her husband, Jose P. Torbela, Sr., who was a secondary school principal of the Bureau of Public Schools in Hinigaran, Negros Occidental when he died in a vehicular accident on March 3, 1975.  The petitioner also filed an application for compensation dated April 4, 1975 with the Government Service Insurance System.  The claim was denied by the Government Service Insurance System on the ground that the death of Jose P. Torbela, Sr. was not the result of an employment accident.

The claimant, petitioner herein, appealed to the Employees' Compensation Commission which affirmed the decision of the Government Service Insurance System.

The facts, as found by the Employees' Compensation Commission, are:

"Jose P. Torbela, Sr., in his lifetime, was employed as a Secondary School Principal of the Bureau of Public Schools.  He died on March 3, 1975 at about 5:45 o'clock A.M. due to injuries sustained by him in a vehicular accident while he was on his way to school from Bacolod City, where he lived, to Hinigaran, Negros Occidental, where the school of which he was the principal is located.  In his possession at the time of the accident were official papers he allegedly worked on in his residence on the eve of his death."^[2]

The Employees' Compensation Commission affirmed the decision denying the claim because:

"The appealed decision denying the instant claim for compensation is hereby affirmed.  Under Presidential Decree No. 626 and its implementing rules, for the injury and the resulting death to be compensable, the injury must be the result of an employment accident satisfying all of the following conditions:  (1) the employee must have sustained the injury during his working hours; (2) the employee must have been injured at the place where his work required him to be; and (3) the employee must have been performing his official functions.  The evidence on record unerringly points to the fact that not even one of these conditions, which must all concur, has been satisfied.  On the contrary, the evidence shows that the deceased was merely engaged in ordinary travel from home to work, during which time he was not even doing something related or incidental to his duties as Secondary School Principal; that the accident occurred at a time not encompassed by his official working hours; and that the place of the accident is not where his work required him to be or so proximate thereto as to be deemed a part of his workplace, he being not on special errand for his employer at the time he met his death, his possession of official papers notwithstanding.  Thus, we find that there is sufficient factual and legal bases for the GSIS conclusion that the death in question is not the result of an injury from an employment accident and, therefore, such findings should not be disturbed."^[3]

It is a fact that Jose P. Torbela, Sr. died on March 3, 1975 at about 5:45 o'clock in the morning due to injuries sustained by him in a vehicular accident while he was on his way to school from Bacolod City, where he lived, to Hinigaran, Negros Occidental where the school of which he was the principal was located and that at the time of the accident he had in his possession official papers he allegedly worked on in his residence on the eve of his death.

The claim is compensable.  When an employee is accidentally injured at a point reasonably proximate to the place of work, while he is going to and from his work, such injury is deemed to have arisen out of and in the course of his employment.^[4]

WHEREFORE, the decision of the Employees' Compensation Commission appealed from is hereby set aside and the Government Service Insurance System is ordered to pay the petitioner the sum of Twelve Thousand Pesos (P12,000.00) as death benefit, the sum of One Thousand Pesos (P1,000.00) as funeral expenses pursuant to Section 19, P.D. No. 1146, and the sum of One Thousand Two Hundred Pesos (P1,200.00) as attorney's fees.

SO ORDERED.

Teehankee, (Chairman), Makasiar, Guerrero,  De Castro, and Melencio-Herrera, JJ., concur.
Melencio-Herrera, J., dissents in a separate opinion.

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^[1] Annex "C", Rollo, pp. 15-17.

^[2] Rollo, p. 15.

^[3] Rollo, pp. 15-16.

^[4] Philippine Fiber Processing Co., Inc. vs. Fermina Ampil, 99 Phil. 1050; Talisay-Silay Milling Co., Inc. vs. Workmen's Compensation Commission, 21 SCRA 366.

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