The European Commission’s (EC) decision to continue recognizing certificates for seafarers has given the country a “clean slate” to start with, the Maritime Industry Authority (MARINA) on Tuesday said.
“First, I would like to clarify that the recognition of the Philippine government by the European Commission is a normal recognition. That means there is no condition; it is not grey matter. It is a regular recognition issued by EC, and we have a clean slate to start with,” MARINA Administrator Atty. Hernani Fabia said in a press briefing in Malacañang.
“The recognition is good for ten years, subject to reassessment and monitoring by the EMSA. So that’s why we have also to conduct regular training and capacity building for our stakeholders and our marine personnel,” the MARINA chief said.
Last month, the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Mobility and Transport extended its recognition of the Philippine government’s maritime education, training and certification for seafarers after taking note of the country’s actions in addressing some of its serious deficiencies.
In a letter received on March 31, Director-General Henrik Hololei toldMARINA that the EU Commission had assessed the actions taken by the Philippine government to address the deficiencies in the International Convention on Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping for Seafarers (STCW Convention) and Code.
“The outcome of the analysis allows the EU to extend the recognition of the Republic of Philippines STCW system. Nevertheless, the services of the European Commission consider that there are still issues to be addressed,” the EU official said, noting that they expect the Philippine government to continue improving in other areas of the system.
Commission on Higher Education (CHED) chair Prospero de Vera III meanwhile said more personnel are needed to monitor maritime institutions across the country.
De Vera said there is continuous evaluation of maritime schools to check if they are compliant with standards following the European Union’s (EU) recognition of the certificates for seafarers issued by the Philippines.
“We need to add more people because there are many [maritime institutions that have to be monitored]. Secretary Bautista and I will have to look for additional allies to help monitor compliance because CHED does not have much staff. The staff of MARINA is also not that big.” De Vera said.
De Vera mentioned that the government already stopped the operations of 15 maritime programs for being non-compliant with the standards.
“We closed down 15 maritime programs already. If it’s true that everyone is compliant with standards, then we should not have been able to close 15 maritime programs,” the CHED chairperson said.
“We’re very strict. The technical panel and our technical evaluators have gone through the program and we closed 15 over the past year and a half. So there are programs that are non-compliant,” he added.
The CHED earlier said it is ready to coordinate with maritime schools and the Maritime Industry Authority (MARINA) to enforce reforms suggested by the EU to ensure that Filipino seafarers can continue to work on foreign vessels.
He is also reiterated that a five-year moratorium on the opening of new maritime programs was imposed to make sure the review of all maritime schools can be undertaken before adding new ones.