Filipino sailors retain status as world-class seafarer — Baldoz

Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz yesterday said Filipino seamen retained their status as world-class seafarer after the International Maritime Organization (IMO) maintained the Philippines on the global maritime body’s so-called “White List,” the maritime sector’s “reference bible” in seafaring excellence.

The Labor chief said the inclusion of the Philippines in the so-called IMO White List reflects its consistent and sustained standing in giving “full and complete effect” to the IMO’s revised Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping Convention, or STCW ’95, as amended.

“The White List affirms the capacities and diligence of the Philippines in ensuring the competencies of Filipino seafarers,” Baldoz added.

It was learned that the Philippines is the largest supplier of seafarers in the global labor industry. Some 180,000 Filipinos or 28.5 percent of the total maritime population of 632,000 are on board vessels worldwide. Russia is second with 7.3 percent

Seafarers contribute about 10 percent of the total OFW remittances to the country, a major life-line of the Philippine economy.

The IMO is the United Nations specialized agency whose responsibility is focused on the safety and security of shipping and the prevention of marine pollution by ships. It came out with the White List through recent circulars issued by the Maritime Safety Committee in May 2011.

She expressed confidence that maritime sectors around the world will continue to hire Filipino seafarers as shown by the IMO White List.

“The road ahead now clearly points toward the coming into force of the Manila amendments, our capacity for excellence will be tested to the hilt, and by demand and necessity, we must again do our utmost in order to ensure that the quest for quality of Filipino maritime training institutions and of the overseas Filipino seafarers do not taper, but continue to be sustained and maintained at global benchmarks and cutting-edge levels,” she said.

Since 1978, the Philippines had “consistently maintained its inclusion on the White List. –Mina Diaz, Daily Tribune