Reading through a new lens

MARITIME stakeholders who do not agree with the inclusion of provisions that are extraneous to the coverage of the Maritime Labor Convention 2006 (MLC 2006) welcome the decision of President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. to revert the consolidated bill on the Magna Carta of Filipino Seafarers to the bicameral committee of Congress. The enactment of the magna carta into law is the Philippines’ first step in fulfilling its commitment when it signed MLC 2006, i.e., to transpose the provisions of the convention into national legislation.

MLC 2006, adopted by the International Labor Organization (ILO), is a comprehensive international agreement that articulates the rights of seafarers engaged onboard seagoing ships and provides guidance in ensuring their protection and entitlement to decent work onboard. The focus of MLC 2006 is clear and straightforward: the protection of seafarers.

A seafarer, according to MLC 2006, is any person who is employed or engaged or works in any capacity on board a ship; that definition is immediately followed by the meaning of the terms seafarer’s employment contract and seafarer recruitment and placement, an indication that a seafarer does remunerated work onboard.

The vigorous objection of higher maritime education institutions pertains to the inclusion of provisions relating to maritime education and training in the Magna Carta. MLC 2006 in Regulation 1.3 requires that “seafarers shall not work on a ship unless they are trained or certified as competent or otherwise qualified to perform their duties.” This is a condition imposed by MLC 2006 to ensure that the ship, the seafarer’s workplace, is safe and secure; after all, the running and operation of the ship are left to the seafarers who are onboard.

The same Regulation 1.3 also states that training and certification by the International Maritime Organization’s mandatory instrument shall be considered as meeting the requirement of MLC2006. There is no doubt that the IMO convention referred to in Regulation 1.3 is the International Convention on the Standards of Training, Certification, and Watchkeeping (STCW Convention). MLC2006 goes no further than that, an indication that education and training are not within its scope of concern.

Following the aforementioned orientation of MLC 2006, incorporating provisions about maritime education and training in the law that implements said convention may not be proper; rather, the effectiveness of RA 10635, which implements the STCW convention, should be tabled for review if the intention is to strengthen the regulatory framework over MHEIs. Republic Act 10635 designating a single maritime administration in the implementation of the STCW convention was enacted in 2013; a call for Congress to exercise its oversight function over the implementation of the said law should be in order. Such a step will help clarify the ambiguities in the law, which also hinders faithful adherence to the implementing rules and regulations to what the law provides.

Maritime education is integral to producing a maritime workforce able to respond to the vision of making the Philippines truly a maritime nation. The development of a reservoir of maritime human resources able to man Philippine-flagged ships and to capacitate those who will work on the associated maritime enterprises can be realized only through maritime education and training. That the capabilities of Filipino seafarers and other maritime workers gained international recognition must inspire the government and all stakeholders to maintain the status of a world-class maritime workforce.

By referring back to the Magna Carta bill to Congress, President Marcos has opened the door for concerned stakeholders to bring forward clear perspectives by which to read the law through a new lens!

Let us all work on that!