29th National Seafarer’s Day

This Sunday, September 29, 2024, our nation will celebrate the 29th National Seafarer's Day, a fitting tribute to all Filipino seafarers, “our unsung heroes” and their vital role for global and local shipping, seaborne trade, transport and travel.

Filipino seafarers should also be honored for their hard work for their families and for our country through their remittances.

Our seafarers continue to venture out into rough seas despite the high risk of being victims of sea piracy, challenging work conditions/terms, difficulty and pain of spending months/years at sea and separation from loved ones, among others.

In 2023, the Department of Migrant Workers (DMW) reported it has deployed 578,626 seafarers abroad.

The Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) noted that “the Philippines has been the world’s main supplier of sea-based workers since 1987, making the country the manning capital of the world.”

Is it true that “Filipino sea-based workers comprise more than 25 percent of 1.5 million mariners worldwide, constituting the single biggest national bloc in the shipping industry?”

This year’s celebration of the National Seafarers’ Day prominently differs from all previous celebrations because of the historic September 23 signing into law of Republic Act 12021 or "An Act Providing for the Magna Carta of Filipino Seafarers" ensuring the welfare and rights of our Filipino seafarers!

Clarifying that seafarers refer to those “who are employed or engaged or work in any capacity on board a ship,” the following are the important provisions of this Magna Carta:

“(a) to afford Filipino seafarers full protection before, during, and after employment by granting them certain rights as maritime professionals, in recognition of their unique role and contribution to national development;

(b) to maintain and progressively develop a pool of competent and world-class seafarers through a system of education, training, certification, and licensing;

c) to establish mechanisms for the enhancement of administrative, adjudicative, social as well as welfare services for seafarers and their families;

(d) to enact laws that adopt and implement the standards set by international conventions and agreements on working and living conditions, and occupational safety and health, among others, for seafarers particularly the Maritime Labour Convention 2006 (MLC 2006);

e) to recognize shipowners. Maritime Higher Education Institutions (MHEIs), manning and recruitment entities as vital partners in promoting the skills and competencies of Filipino seafarers;

f) to recognize that seafarers are a special category of key or essential workers and, given the global nature of the shipping industry and the different jurisdictions that they may be brought into contact with, need special protection in relation to contracts with public authorities, and shall be treated fairly at all times especially in the event of a maritime accident, epidemic, pandemic, and other natural or man-made crises, in accordance with international law; and,

(g) to encourage the participation of women in the seafaring profession (including protection from gender-based discrimination, and lesser compensation compared with their male counterparts) to  contribute meaningfully to the achievement of national development goals as productive members of the community.

This Magna Carta took decades to be approved due to differing partisan and sectoral views that had to be reconciled/harmonized in Congress.

Despite critics who still raise issues about this new Magna Carta, many consider this Magna Carta also as a special gift for this year’s September 26 World Maritime Day celebration for the people of the “maritimus,” of the sea.

Pope and Saint John Paul II, in his encyclical, provided this broadened perspective of the “people of the sea” whose welfare and rights should also be protected:

1) seafarers and maritime personnel – those who work on board a ship/oil rigs/ and platforms; 2) their spouses/children/pensioners; 3) students of nautical school; 4) port workers; and, 5) those who work regularly in the Maritime Apostolate.

To all “PEOPLE of the Sea” - our salute and tribute!!!