MARINA ready for EU audit on standards of Pinoy seafarers

MANILA, Philippines - The Maritime Industry Authority (MARINA) expressed readiness for the coming audit of the European Commission’s European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA) next month that will decide if the EC will push through with their planned implementation of a ban on Filipino seafarers from crewing European Union-registered ships.

Lawyer Nicasio Conti, officer-in-charge of the MARINA, said that they had conducted a breakthrough meeting last Wednesday where all agencies involved in the regulation of maritime education and training institutions (METIs) agreed to align their evaluation standards.

These would be used to assess the quality of maritime education and training with MARINA’s newly formulated national quality standard system (NQSS).

The other agencies were identified as the Commission on Higher Education (CHED), the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA), the Professional Regulation Commission (PRC), the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC), and the Department of Health (DOH).

“We had a breakthrough since we got all the agencies to agree to align their standards with the NQSS of MARINA,” Conti said.

He said that the PRC, the only agency that has not signed a memorandum of agreement (MOA) with MARINA for a commitment to align their standards with the NQSS, had already vowed to do so.

“This is about the exercise of the effective oversight function of MARINA as the single administration for (the) STCW (1978 International Convention on Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping),” Conti told The STAR.

The EMSA had earlier reset the EMSA audit on the Philippine administration structure over the education and training of seamen by local METIs from  March 18-22 to April 15-19.

The EMSA, it was learned, had decided to conduct a separate audit on the Philippine administration of METIs aspect and the local METIs. The audit on the Philippine METIs is scheduled in September and October.

The EMSA, in their April 15-19 audit is expected to primarily look into the implementation of Executive Order No. 75 signed by President Aquino last April 30, that transfers the task of ensuring the country’s compliance with the STCW for seafarers to the MARINA.

Before the issuance of EO 75, various government agencies such as CHED, PRC, TESDA the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE), and the Philippine Overseas Employment Authority insisted on having regulatory jurisdiction on the education and training of Filipino seaman, which was questioned by EC-EMSA.

The EU had been set to impose a ban on the hiring of Filipino seamen to crew EU-registered vessels in 2011, but frenzied efforts of the Philippine government, led by Malacañang, CHED and the Department of Transportation and Communications and its line agency MARINA, persuaded it to stay such a move.

The Philippines earlier put off for several months the EU ban after the President signed EO 75.

Seeing the issuance of EO 75 as a vital reform and proof of the Philippines’ commitment to implement reforms, the EC-DGMOVE informed the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) middle of last year that it will not take any final action with regard deficiencies they found in the country’s maritime education and training institutions until the “latter part of the year or early 2013.”

Until then, the DGMOVE will send another audit mission to the Philippines.

Early May 2011, EMSA had informed DFA that the Philippines was no longer considered compliant with the STCW.

This finding was made after the EMSA had conducted an independent audit of Philippine maritime schools and reported its findings of gross deficiencies on several schools.

DFA Assistant Secretary Leslie Baja, in a letter dated May 11, 2011, had sent a letter to Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz which relayed the warning given by the EMSA of a possible withdrawal of recognition of the Philippine’s STCW training and certification system.

“Failure to comply will trigger initiation of EC procedure for withdrawal of EU recognition of Philippine STCW training and certification system. This would mean that in the long run EU-registered ships could no longer hire Filipino seafarers,” DFA warned Baldoz.

The withdrawal of the recognition was seen to have dire consequences for Filipino seafarers’ hiring opportunities on board foreign ships since this could trigger a domino effect with other nations that could adopt the same move as the EU.

Filipino seamen constitute an estimated 30 percent of the world’s maritime manpower labor requirements. Their remittance was estimated to have reached US$4.3 billion in 2011.