80,000 Filipino seafarers onboard EU vessels
Labor and Employment Secretary Rosalinda-Dimapilis Baldoz said the European Union will remain a significant market for the deployment of Filipino seafarers despite the economic crisis in Europe.
Baldoz said there are 80,000 Filipino seafarers onboard EU vessels and expects that the number will remain the same despite the brewing European crisis.
Overseas Filipino workers’ dollar remittances come mostly from the United States with 42 percent of the total remittances; the Middle East, 12 percent; the EU, 14 percent; Canada 13 percent, and Asia, 10 percent.
Baldoz is optimistic that the European Union’s confidence in the competence of Filipino seafarers will further strengthen following the just-ended inspection visit of representatives from the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA).
The EMSA Team headed by Dr. Jaime Veiga along with Capt. Antonio Hevia Rodriguez were traveling back to Europe as of press time. The EMSA representatives visited Manila on March 7-14.
Baldoz is confident that the EMSA inspectors will find merit in the corrective actions taken by the Maritime Training Center (MTC), Commission on Higher Education (CHED), Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) and the Professional Regulation Commission (PRC).
“They only aired concerns on the monitoring of the maritime schools and the compliance with the Management Level Course (MLC). Their understanding is that all officers will have to take the MLC. They gave us the opportunity to ask the International Maritime Organization (IMO) to clarify this,” she said.
She explained that “we have long-time and experienced captains so they were lenient on them on the MLC, and this also happens in other countries. We welcome the observations on the areas that need to improve. They heard from CHED, MTC, PRC and from me that the government is committed to STCW compliance.”
Baldoz said the team has a time line that corrections are already implemented before the audit report is released in a month’s time.
Baldoz said local authorities welcomed this follow-up visit as an opportunity for the Philippine government to prove its efforts to continuously improve its maritime education, training and certification system.
Similar visits by EMSA inspectors to the country in 2006 and 2010 revealed some deficiencies in areas relating to maritime administration, especially with regards the monitoring of maritime education and training institutions (METIs), quality standards system, requirements for seafarers’ certification, requirements for onboard training, implementation of the MLC, and the improvement of the maritime training institution’s equipment and facilities.
In August 2011, the Philippines submitted its report on the corrective actions taken with regards to the deficiencies noted by EMSA.
In January of this year, updates on the status of such corrective actions were likewise submitted to EMSA.
Source: Malaya Business Insight
