Mariners complain of long wait for seaman’s book

MANILA, Philippines - Filipino seafarers are complaining about the three-week wait for the Maritime Industry Authority (MARINA) to issue their seaman’s book.

In a seamen’s conference organized by Dutch shipping company Van Oord at the Manila Diamond Hotel recently, seafarers said that since last year, MARINA has taken up to three weeks to issue a seaman’s book when, in previous years, it took the agency only one day to process and release the document.

MARINA officer-in-charge Nicasio Conti said that they were already addressing the problem on the supply of the seaman’s book.

Conti told seamen at the conference that the MARINA’s supplier of the seaman’s book is also the supplier of the election ballots for the May  elections.

Conti said the MARINA is already preparing a public bidding for the steady supply of the seaman’s book and the agency will raise technical specifications to make the new seaman’s book at par with the seaman’s book issued by other countries to their seafarers.

Conti said that at present, the seaman’s books issued to Filipino seamen are basically plain paper booklets while those issued by other countries were similar to passports.