Public interest organization urges “K-12” program for seafarers

Public interest and policy research organization urged the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) and its agencies, the Professional Regulation Commission (PRC), Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA), Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA), the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA); the Maritime Industry Authority (MIA) and Commission on Higher Education (CHED) to sit down and jointly consider mapping a K-12 program for Filipino seafarers to ensure the competitiveness of the Philippines as a maritime torchbearer in the world. Speaking yesterday at the

Balitaan sa Aristocrat press roundtable hosted by veteran media man Melo Acuña, Nicon F. Fameronag, president of the Lilac Center for Public Interest, Inc., said this is imperative in the light of the country having been relegated to the second position as global supplier of seafarers and the 8.3 percent drop in remittances of seafarers in January 2017.

“The Philippines has lost to China, which is now the world’s No. 1 supplier of all seafarers, especially of officers. The Philippines has retained the first spot as the largest supplier of ratings, but China is close at No. 2. Sooner or later, if the government does not get its acts together, even Indonesia could eat up our share in the maritime labor market,” said Fameronag, who is a former DOLE undersecretary for employment and enterprise competitiveness.

In 2015, POEA records show that the Philippines deployed 93,992 officers, a growth of only 0.33 percent over the deployment of officers in 2014. On the other hand, ratings deployment went down by 4.31 percent, from 154,963 in 2014 to only 148,283 ratings in 2015. The POEA has no report yet on seafarer deployment for 2016.

Fameronag said that while the January 2017 seafarers’ remittances of US$410.250 million—lower by 8.3 percent than the US$447.466 million Filipino seafarers remitted in January 2016—do not at all establish a trend, it is a portent of things to come, considering the host of challenges Filipino seafarers face in the global market.

Speaking at the same forum, Capt. Rodolfo D. Estampador of the Maritime Services and Management, Inc., a leading voice in the Philippine maritime manning sector, validated this observation. He said education and training is the most visible challenge to Filipino seafarers.

“We are not paying much attention to the education and training of our seafarers,” Capt. Estampador said, explaining that our seafarers could not progress to officers’ positions as fast because international maritime standards require a full-year seaborne training and Philippine maritime training schools don’t own vessels in which seafarers could train.

“Because of the short duration of seafarers’ contracts — from only six months to nine months at sea, at the most — our seafarers lack the seaborne experience required by international maritime standards. We should remedy this gap,” Estampador said.

Fameronag said nothing short of an education and training roadmap for Filipino seafarers is needed, as he urged the government to take the lead in ensuring that Filipino seafarers are adequately trained.

“Perhaps, a K-12 program for seafarers is needed,” he said, noting that the Philippines should heed the Baltic and International Maritime Council (BIMCO), the world’s largest shipping association, and the International Chamber of Shipping (ICS), which have recommended the promotion of careers at sea and the improvement of the levels of recruitment and retention for maritime manning countries to cope with today’s maritime challenges.

“This is the only way for the Philippines to be able to take advantage of the expected shortfall of officers of 147,500 by 2025 to service the world merchant fleet,” he said.

The BIMCO/ICS has reported that the current shortfall of officers stands at 2.1 percent, or 16,500 officers, saying that some officer categories, such as engineer officers at management level and officers needed for specialized ships such as chemical, LNG and LPG carriers, are in dire shortage.

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