EDITORIAL - Crisis averted... for now

Over the weekend, thousands of Filipino sailors heaved a sigh of relief after the European Commission announced its decision to continue recognizing the seafarer certifications issued by the Philippine government.

In December 2021, the EC’s Directorate General for Mobility and Transport had warned that it would withdraw the recognition unless remedial measures were taken to improve Philippine compliance with the International Convention on Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping or STCW for seafarers.

The EC issued the warning following an audit conducted by the European Maritime Safety Agency. Since 2006, EMSA has been assessing Philippine compliance with the STCW. “Serious deficiencies” were found in the areas of monitoring, supervising, testing and assessing training as well as competence in maritime schools; program and course design and approval; availability and use of training facilities including simulators; on-board training as well as the issuance, revalidation and registration of seafarer certificates and endorsements.

In December last year, the EC gave the Philippines a three-month deadline to act on the EMSA audit findings. Approximately 50,000 Filipino sailors on European Union-flagged ships would have been affected by a ban over the certifications issued by the Maritime Industry Authority to seafarer training institutions. MARINA had presented the “serious efforts” being undertaken to improve Philippine compliance with the STCW.

A European ban would affect all Filipino sailors deployed worldwide, estimated at 345,000 as of 2022, during which they remitted a whopping $6.7 billion or P341 billion to the Philippines. The country is the world’s biggest source of commercial sailors; it is said that practically every merchant ship on the planet has a Filipino in its crew.

Maintaining this global lead requires ensuring the highest standards of training and accreditation for seafarers. In the past years, however, high demand for seafarers led to the mushrooming of maritime schools with lax supervision over the quality of training as well as accreditation procedures. In some cases, attempts by the Commission on Higher Education to shut down maritime schools considered to be substandard were blocked by politicians whose relatives or supporters were operating the schools.

The EC threat to stop recognizing Philippine seafarer certificates forced the country to crack down on substandard schools and improve compliance with global standards in training and accreditation. With the EC’s decision, it has also announced that it would provide technical assistance to help the Philippines further improve seafarer education, training and certification.

The EC has stressed that several areas still need improvement. The Philippines averted a crisis this time. It must make sure the reforms are sustained and the remaining deficiencies properly addressed.