Senator wants better education for Filipino seamen

MANILA, Philippines - Amid the huge demand for ship officers abroad, a Philippine senator wants the training and education of Filipino seamen improved so that “they could be more than servers of food and drawers of water."

Senator Edgardo Angara told GMANews.TV on Monday that Filipinos could be more than seafarers by becoming maritime officers.

The senator, who authored the "Magna Carta for Filipino Seafarers," is proposing revisions to maritime education and training to produce "high quality seafarers."

Angara wants Filipino seafarers’ dominance all over the world amid the emergence of new sources of maritime labor such as China, Ukraine, India, Indonesia, Poland, and Greece.

"The Philippines remains the biggest source of seafarers in the global market for almost three decades now, hence all the more we must protect the welfare of Pinoy seamen and their families," he said.

There is a shortage of 35,000 ship officers worldwide, according to Nelson Ramirez, president of the United Filipino Seafarers (UFS), said

UFS earlier criticized the proposed deployment ban of Filipino seafarers to pirate-prone waters after the recent spate of abductions in African waters.

More than 50 Filipino seafarers have been abducted by pirates in the Gulf of Aden, near Somalia, since July. One Filipino was reported killed in an accident that occurred in one of the hijackings.

Meanwhile, Angara said government agencies should meet with manpower agencies to decide whether a suspension in the deployment of Filipino seafarers in pirate-prone areas would be practical.

About 350,000 Filipino seafarers are deployed all over the world, which is a third of the global labor supply of maritime workers, according to the Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs.

Angara said that as much as $300 million were being remitted by Filipino seafarers annually. He said the seafaring industry was expected to grow by 10 percent in the next five to 10 years. - Mark Joseph H. Ubalde, GMANews.TV

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