We’ve had some doubts on the matter, and they were reinforced yesterday. A young man who’s due to join a cruise ship complained to us about he and others being required by their agency to undergo medical exams twice a year – one at the Department of Health and another at a private clinic. We’ve heard similar gripes before from the cruise ship hotel personnel deployed by the same large and well-respected manning agency. In Manila, where money is deified by rich and poor alike, some things just do not change.

No wonder the bellyaching. A fortnight ago, the president of one company that supplies seafarers to Taiwanese container ship operator Evergreen narrated the fate of one of his crew. The young lad performed so well during his one-year shipboard apprenticeship that he was promoted to OS (Ordinary Seaman) after nine months. Back in Manila to take the state licensure exams, he was told by the Professional Regulation Commission that he was three months short of the 12 required. His manning agency protested but finally agreed to have the poor fellow enrolled in a one-month course at a training centre designated by some PRC folks trying to make money on the side.

Something is terribly wrong when you hear both seafarers and crewing executives grumble about the way seafarers are treated. The only ones not whining are the flunkies who serve as unpaid office help in crewing firms, seafarers’ unions and maritime training institutes in exchange for promised shipboard slots. These aspiring ship officers from various maritime colleges serve coffee to visitors, operate the fax machine, run errands for the company secretaries and even clean the toilets. The flunky system is demeaning to the individual and the merchant marine profession. Yet, it’s considered normal industry practice.

The Year of the Seafarer? That seems to exist only in the minds of IMO Secretary General Efthimios E. Mitropoulos and the local manning bigwigs and their foreign principals. In Manila, no year has ever been for the seafarers, but every year is for those who make money from them. ~Barista Uno