MARINA scores in legal battle with seafarers' group

A Manila court on Wednesday junked the petition filed by a group of seafarers against the implementation of a law designating MARINA as the sole agency in charge of training and issuing certificates to Filipino seafarers.

"The initial evidence presented shows no existence of an urgent necessity for the issuance of a TRO [temporary restraining order] in order to prevent serious damage," said Judge Rainelda H. Estacio-Montesa of Manila Regional Trial Court Branch 46 in a ruling.

Montesa said a TRO could only be issued if "the matter is of such extreme urgency that grave injustice and irreparable injury" would happen if is not issued immediately.

"The essence of extreme urgency has already been obliterated by the fact that there is no specific date or event sought to be enjoined or restrained but a general allegation of a presumed or would be action of the respondents," the judge said.

The petition was filed by the United Filipino Seafarers (UFS), which said designating MARINA, or the Maritime Industry Authority, as the sole agency in charge of Filipino seafarers "will place in grave danger the seafaring industry and the foreign employment of Filipino seafarers."

The law in question was Republic Act 10635, which was passed in July last year to help the country comply with 1978 International Convention on Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping for Seafarers or STCW Convention.

Misguided motives

MARINA Administrator Maximo Mejia Jr. welcomed the Manila court's decision.

"Talaga naman kasi walang basis mga allegations niya," he told GMA News Online via text message, referring to UFS president Engr. Nelson Ramirez. "I am sad to say that he is fueled by misguided motives."

In a statement, Ramirez said a provision in the assailed law transfers the function of giving licensure examinations to seafarers from the Professional Regulation Commission to MARINA. He said this "was never a requirement" in the STCW Convention.

He also said that the audit by the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA) never mentioned the need to establish a single maritime administration.

UFS has previously sought the resignation of Mejia for MARINA's alleged failure to confront the problems hounding the seafaring industry.

The seafarer's group has also criticized MARINA for issuing identification record sheets instead of Seafarers Identification and Record Books (SIRB) to Filipino seafarers last March.

Seafarers, Ramirez said, feared the MARINA-issued Seafarers Identification Record Sheet (SIRS) will not be honored in other countries and cause them to lose their jobs. —KBK, GMA News

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