Agency of seafarers abandoned in Fiji gets license pulled —POEA

Published March 17, 2021 6:02pm The Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) has suspended the license of the manning agency of around ten seafarers who were abandoned by their employer in Fiji, one of its officials said Wednesday. In a live briefing, POEA administrator Bernard Olalia said the POEA checked if the Able Maritime Agency conducted significant efforts to help the seafarers. “[N]akita po namin na nagkulang ‘yung manning agency sa pag-monitor sa ating mga seafarers kaya po agad-agad po tayong nag-impose ng disciplinary action which led to the documentary suspension of the license of the manning agency,” he said. (We saw that the manning agency was lacking in its efforts to monitor our seafarers so we immediately imposed disciplinary action, which led to the disciplinary suspension of the license of the manning agency.) Olalia added that the employer has also been disallowed from hiring and recruiting seafarers. “They failed to give an update, significant report, or ‘yung tinatawag nating regular monitoring report kaya we issued a documentary suspension against the said agency,” Olalia said. (They failed to give an update, a significant report, or what we call a regular monitoring report so we issued a documentary suspension against the said agency.) At present, Olalia said the POEA is working with government officials, especially the Department of Foreign Affairs, to immediately repatriate the seafarers. — Joahna Lei Casilao/BM, GMA News

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