27 October 2014 Hon. Aquilino“ Koko” Pimentel Senate of the Philippines Pasay City Dear Sen. Pimentel, During our discussion last October 22, 2014 with the OFW groups together with Ms. Susan “Toots” Ople, I mentioned the problem of our seafarers, especially the Management Level Officers who are required to take the Management Level Course. The name of this course has been changed many times from Interim Course, Management Level Course, Revised Management Level Course and recently New Management Level Course. Every time the name of this course is changed, it will become mandatory that our management level officers have to take again another re-training because some experts in the maritime industry said that there are changes in the new developed course. Nobody knows how many times the name of this course will be changed and our seasoned management level officers like chief officers and master mariners, second engineers and chief engineers are already tired of taking this very expensive course. Aside from the high cost of this course which runs from Php 30,000 to Php 60,000, it takes also the precious time of our management level officers. It deprives them of their vacation and precious time to be with their families because the course is 54 days for the deck officers and 73 days for the engine officers. There are so many occasions that our master mariners and chief engineers are complaining because their instructors are their junior officers before and the subjects that are being taught are already the things that they have been doing for years. When MARINA administrator Dr. Maximo Mejia Jr. was asked by the Japanese shipowners last October 17, 2014 in Tokyo, Japan regarding this issue as to who will take this course, he answered that it will be taken by officer who want to be promoted to management level. In this case, the management level officers who have been using their license for many years must be exempted from taking this course. But this is not the case at present. When he was asked how many times this course must be taken, Dr. Mejia also answered that it will be taken only once. If that is the case, why require those who have taken already this course? A case in point is Capt. Autonomo Abellar Amano Sr. He had been a seafarer for 35 years and a master mariner for 16 years. During the 2010 Manila Amendments of the IMO-STCW Convention, he was awarded as the Most Outstanding Master Mariner of the Year by no less than the International Maritime Organization Secretary General Efthimios E. Mitropoulos and he was also awarded as Outstanding Seafarer of the Year by President Benigno Simeon C. Aquino during the BagongBayani Awards in 2011. Unfortunately, this time he has to take this Management Level Course again for 54 hours and his juniors will be teaching him. Our maritime courses are baccalaureate degree that will take four years and longer than the maritime courses in Europe and other countries but it is being ostracized by the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA) because it does not conform with the IMO model course. If we adapt the IMO model course 7.03 and 7.04 for the Officers In Charge and IMO model course 7.01 and 7.02 for the management level officers, it will take only one year and six months and one year and eight months respectively for deck and engine officers to obtain the highest degree of maritime education. We strongly suggest that we have to make a drastic change in our maritime curriculum and adapt the IMO model course which is shorter but respected by the IMO and EMSA. Aside from that we don’t have to repeat the unnecessary re-training of the courses which we have already learned in school. Aside from this very important issue, we are also asking your office, being the chairman of the electoral reforms, to review the absentee voting law. Until now our seafarers won’t have any chance to vote during the election because most of the time they are at sea and even if they are in port during the election time they still don’t have a chance to vote because the port is normally far from the embassy. In this regard, we hope that the on-line registration and on-line voting will be implemented. In behalf of the United Filipino Seafarers along with its 44,985 members, we are asking your office to conduct an investigation in aid of legislation on these matter which greatly affects the lives of our seafarers who are the number four dollar earner of our country. Very truly yours, Engr. Nelson P. Ramirez President United Filipino Seafarers
Posted on: Mon, 27 Oct 2014 03:04:25 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015