Piracy response marks National Maritime Week

CEBU, Philippines - The Philippine Coast Guard and MARINA-7 has given emphasis on the issue of piracy here and abroad as they launched with an early morning motorcade yesterday, the National Maritime Week which runs from Sept. 26 to October 1 carrying the theme “Piracy: Orchestrating the Response”.

Philippine Coast Guard-Visayas commander Capt. Romeo Rivero said that even with no reported incident of piracy attacks, they still launched an anti-piracy campaign as part of their mandate to provide maritime security.

The PCG has attributed the absence of pirate attacks in Central Visayas including Cebu to strengthen the vigilance of maritime agencies and favorable economic conditions.

Rivero credited the strong vigilance against threats in the seas as part of their regular coordination which has always been done by the maritime stakeholders.

“Poverty is the major reason why some individuals resort to piracy attacks. This is the main reason why no piracy attacks have been recorded in the Visayas seas because generally, the economic condition of the people is good,” Rivero said during the opening of the National Maritime Week yesterday morning.

According to Rivero, the piracy attacks are not really a grave problem in the country but it is a real threat in some countries abroad, with high risk areas cited for piracy attacks off the seas of Nigeria, Africa, Malacca Strait and the Gulf of Aden.

“Though there have been a few incidents involving piracy specifically in Navotas and a few cases in Mindanao,” Rivero said.

He said that the usual problem they encounter onboard the vessels are not attacks on the ship but on simple theft where perpetrators go after the cargoes and steal them.

“In order to guarantee the safety of the passengers onboard the vessel, the PCG conducts pre-departure inspection and screening of all passengers to check on dubious passengers with criminal intent,” Rivero said.

Based on the records of the International Maritime organization, there are over 4,000 hostage incidents of pirate attacks that have been recorded as of 2010. Out of the 500 hostage victims of different nationalities, 103 were Filipino seafarers as pirates continue to be a real threat in the maritime industry.

 MARINA-7 Regional Director Nanette Villamor-Dinopol said that Filipino seafarers which is reported to comprise 30 percent of the world’s crew fleet, are vulnerable to pirate attacks as the problem has worsened over the years.

“In 2005, the groups behind the piracy only demand about 100M in ransom but the amount has increased with last year’s ransom demand reaching P500M,” Dinopol said.

Dinopol said because of the dangers of pirate attacks, the major impact is felt in the high cost of cargo shipping fees because ship owners have to increase insurance premium payments. 

The Marina-7 director said the IMO is exerting efforts to address the piracy problem and that it has issued a circular to ship owners to hire armed security personnel and Navy forces to ward off the threats of pirate attacks.

The Philippines is one of the 170 member-states of the IMO while reports stated that there are an estimated 340,000 to 380,000 Filipino seafarers currently deployed at sea. (FREEMAN)