IMEE: Ipaglaban ang mga seaman natin!
September 26, 2024
IMEE: Ipaglaban ang mga seaman natin!
"Nararapat lamang na puksain ang mga sumisira sa pangalan ng ating bansa pagdating sa industriya ng paglalayag. Dapat tayong magkaroon ng balanse sa pagitan ng ganitong paninikil at pagprotekta sa ating mga marinero at sa kanilang mga karapatan," Senator Imee Marcos stressed on Thursday, September 26, following the recent signing of Republic Act 12021 or the 'Magna Carta of Filipino Seafarers'.
The senator's call for the government to restore its long held position of being number one in the global maritime industry coincides with the celebration of this year's World Maritime Day.
Armed with this new law, Marcos believes the government can finally put an end to the notorious "ambulance chasers" that have plagued the seafaring industry and robbed OFWs of their opportunities for far too long. The senator said that fixers, recruiters, lawyers, and even government officials were taking advantage of Filipino seafarers injured on the job by extorting their money for damages from their employers and that this practice deterred the shipping industries of other countries from hiring Filipinos.
"Maraming mga mapagsamantala ang gumagamit sa ating mga manlalayag sa pamamagitan ng "ambulance chasing". Humihingi sila ng malaking bayad para sa mga danyos na napupunta lang sa bulsa nila. Kailangan nating linisin ang ating pangalan at ibalik ang dignidad ng mga marino katulad noong panahon ni Apo Lakay," Marcos added.
Marcos Sr.'s Presidential Decree (P.D.) 1691 established the National Seamen Board in 1980, which was later reorganized as the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration in 1982. "Nagsimula sa aking amang si Presidente Ferdinand E. Marcos Sr., ang pag-organisa ng industriya noon pang 1970s. Bago pa magkaroon ng POEA, nauna na niyang tinatag ang Maritime Industry Authority - na hanggang ngayon ay aktibo pa rin," Marcos recalled.
"Maliit lang ang bilang ng sea-based OFW kumpara sa land-based, pero ayon sa BSP, nakapagpasok ng 382 bilyong pisong remittance noong 2023 ang mga ito," Marcos said.
"Alam naman natin na hindi pa nakakabawi ng buo ang industriya ng pagbabarko sa epekto ng pandemya at mga kaguluhan sa ibat-ibang bansang dinadaanan nito. Nakakabahala ang napakababang deployment ng mga marino ngayong taon. Wala namang pandemya!" Marcos added.
DMW puts the number of sea-based overseas Filipinos workers at 578,338 in 2023, but as of September 2024, the country has yet to achieve pre-pandemic levels of deployment with only 251,912 sea-based workers deployed globally. This is less than half of the figures of sea-based OFWs deployed from the previous year. The lowest DMW data deployment was at 270,026 in 2020 at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
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