President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has directed maritime agencies to ensure compliance with the training, education, and certification standards of the European Union (EU) in order to guarantee the recognition of Filipino seafarers’ certificates.
The President, who led a multi-sectoral meeting at Malacañang Palace on Tuesday, April 11, acknowledged the “good gesture” of the EU to recognize the country’s standards of training certification and watchkeeping (STCW) for seafarers and moved to address maritime education issues.
“We reported to him the continuous recognition by the European Union of the Certificate for seafarers issued by MARINA (Maritime Industry Authority) and the President acknowledged the good gesture and good decision of the European Union because that would mean continuous employment for around 50,000 seafarers in Europe,” Department of Transportation (DOTr) Secretary Jaime Bautista said.
MARINA Administrator Hernani Fabia said there are issues that need to be addressed as stated by independent evaluators.
“We also talked [about] how we will move forward considering that there are still some issues that we need to address,” Bautista added.
For his part, Commission on Higher Education (CHED) Chairperson Prospero De Vera III said, “We have an enhanced curriculum that has been put together by MARINA, CHED, and the maritime higher education institutions, we must make sure it is implemented correctly, so the enhanced curriculum satisfies compliance with the standards of the STCW.”
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De Vera stressed the importance of monitoring maritime schools and making sure they are equipped with competent teachers and good facilities so that Filipino seafarers can keep up with European maritime safety standards.
“That means we have a lot of work to do in monitoring and evaluating all the maritime education institutions in the country,” he said.
De Vera also said CHED and MARINA need more personnel to better monitor maritime schools in the country.
“Kailangan namin ng dagdag na tao kasi marami (We need more people because there are many schools). That’s why kami ni Secretary Bautista we have to look for additional allies to help monitor compliance kasi hindi naman ganun kadami ang staff ng CHED, hindi rin ganun kadami ang staff ng MARINA (because CHED and MARINA do not have many personnel) and the schools are located all over the country,” he said.
On March 31, the European Union extended its recognition of seafarers’ certificates issued by the Philippines after taking into consideration the measures to address some deficiencies, including compliance with the International Convention on Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping for Seafarers (STCW Convention).
Around 50,000 Filipino masters and officers are currently working on EU-flagged ships, according to European Commissioner for Transport Adina Vălean.
