Magna Carta of Seafarers bill to reach Senate plenary in January



A Senate panel is pushing for the passage of a bill that aims to institute mechanisms to protect the rights of the country's seafarers and to ensure their compulsary benefits.
The proposed Magna Carta of Seafarers Act also aims to enforce standards set by international laws.
"Napapanahon po na ipasa ang panukalang batas na ito upang kilalanin ang kontribusyon ng ating dakilang Filipino seafarers sa buong mundo," said Senator Joel Villanueva, co-author of the Magna Carta of Seafarers bill.
Villanueva chairs the Senate Committee on Labor, Employment and Human Resources Development, which discussed the bill in a hearing on Wednesday.
The Magna Carta of Seafarers bill aims to fill in the gaps in legislation, particularly the Overseas Filipinos and Migrant Workers' Act of 1996 (RA 8042), which Villanueva said neither completely address concerns of the Filipino seafarers nor abide by the existing standards set by the International Labour Organization (ILO) and the International Maritime Organization (IMO).
In a data released by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, it showed that sea-based Filipino workers remitted more than $1.9 billion from January to April 2015, a 5.6 percent increase from $1.8 billion during the same period in 2014.
Villanueva acknowledged the importance of passing the said proposal as the Philippines is considered as the manning capital of the world. In fact, 30 percent out of more than 1.2 million mariners in the world are Filipinos.
Moreover, there are 100 maritime academies in the Philippines, which produce some 40,000 seafarers each year, according to a 2011 United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (Unctad) report.
"Nais natin siguruhin na mabibigyang proteksiyon ang ating seafarers before, during and after their employment," Villanueva said. "Hindi po natatapos sa pagsampa nila sa barko ang ating pag-alalay sa ating mga mandaragat."
The Magna Carta of Filipino Seafarers bill is set to be brought in the plenary during the Senate's resumption of session in January 2018 for further deliberations. —KBK, GMA News

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