Robredo eyes investing on seafarers if elected president in Eleksyon 2022

Vice President Leni Robredo on Wednesday said the government should invest in local maritime schools so that graduates could be a match for international standards and produce more officers in the field.

In an interview with One News, Robredo explained that since the country is deploying many seafarers abroad, the government could maximize the opportunities for maritime students by preparing them for cadetship programs as early as senior high school.

Robredo, who is running for president in the May 2022 polls, said her team has already initiated the said project in Bulan, Sorsogon.

“‘Yung mga maritime schools natin, sisiguraduhin natin na at par with international standards, ‘yung mga graduates nila, para lalabas lang naman sila, maging opisyal na sila,” she said.

(We will ensure that our maritime schools and their graduates are at par with international standards so that when they get out of the country, they become officials.)

The Philippines is the world’s largest source of seafarers, with an estimated 700,000 deployed on domestic or foreign-flagged seagoing vessels, according to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development’s (UNCTAD) Review of Maritime Transport 2021 published on November 18, 2021.

The Philippines topped the other large seafarer-supplying countries such as the Russian Federation, Indonesia, China, and India.

“Napakadami ng seafarers natin na nagtatrabaho sa labas. Pero ‘pag tinignan natin, sa dami ng seafarers natin, sobrang small percentage niyan ‘yung mga opisyal sa barko at kung titignan natin ‘yung sweldo nila, sobrang layo,” Robredo stressed.

(We have many seafarers working internationally. However, if we look at it, only a small percentage of them are officers in ships and they have a huge difference in salary with the cadets.)

The UNCTAD study also noted that over a quarter of all global merchant shipping crew members come from the Philippines, with about 380,000 of them recorded in 2019.

In 2019, the country earned $6.5 billion from its seafarers, but this fell by 2.8% or to $6.3 billion by the end 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. 50,000 Filipino seafarers were then repatriated, while 17,845 outbound or deployed seafarers were recorded by the authorities.

The Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA), however, noted that the number of Filipino seafarers who were deployed in 2021 is already almost the same as those who boarded ships before the COVID-19 pandemic.

This means that the deployment of the seafarers is gradually reviving, POEA said.

POEA administrator Bernard Olalia earlier explained that one of the reasons why it became difficult for some seafarers to get onboard in international shipping companies was the lack of face-to-face training due to the pandemic.

He added that in-person training was one of the requirements for the seafarers to get a certification or an assessment of their skills and competencies.

Further, Robredo emphasized that the government should strengthen the Philippine economy so that the Filipinos would not have to seek jobs abroad just so they could have better lives.

This then would also help the overseas Filipino workers who would want to retire in the Philippines but could not do so because there are better benefits in other countries such as in terms of healthcare for the senior citizens.

“Wala namang masama working abroad pero dapat nagtatrabaho sila sa labas dahil ‘yun ‘yung choice nila hindi dahil kasi walang opportunities dito,” she said.

(There is nothing wrong with working abroad but the Filipinos should do so because it’s their choice and not because there are no opportunities here.)

Robredo said on Monday that the migrant resource centers at the local government level must complement the newly created Department of Migrant Workers.

If elected to office, she vowed to complement the Republic Act No. 11641 or the Department of Migrant Workers Act, signed by President Duterte in December 2021 with an executive order mandating the creation of Migrant Resource Centers in every local government unit, patterned after the Naga City Migrant Resource Center. — RSJ, GMA News