The ping command does not respect -w timeout when called as child process

Issue

If the "ping" command is called with "-w " option from a bash script, which is called from C code via system() library call, it does not respect the specified timeout deadline in some cases.
if the C code manipulates blocked or ignored signal masks in such a way that signal 14 (SIGALRM) is blocked, then the ping than fails.
If such a ping is used to a non existent or unavailable IP address with-w less then 3, the ping returns after 3 seconds, and not the time specified by -w.