It’s not the best of times for the Filipino seafarer factory. The folks from the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA) came visiting in April, saw what they hoped they would not see and left dismayed. We’re not in the least surprised. Anyone who tries to reform the local MET (maritime education and training) establishment and the system of maritime governance is up against institutional inertia, inter-agency rivalry and inflated egos.

Frankly speaking, we’re tired of discussing the subject. We first wrote about the Filipino seafarer factory two years ago to the chagrin of many of our readers. In subsequent blog posts, we kept beating on what was wrong and what needed to be done (see ‘Buying time for Filipino crew certificates‘). How much progress has been made? Not much it seems. Jaime Veiga, the EMSA team leader, raised some worrisome issues in the debriefing he gave Philippine officials the day after the 18th April audit:

• Slow implementation of Executive Order No. 75 (issued in April 2012)

• National Quality Standards System in place but still a long way to go

• Monitoring plan of the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) flawed and unrealistic

We won’t go into the horrid details (a two-page summary of Mr Veiga’s debriefing can be downloaded from our Downloads section under the file name ‘EMSA 2013 Visit Debriefing’). It’s enough to point out that the Philippines has been given all the time in the world to correct its deficiencies. The EMSA team will be back in October to inspect some MET institutions and to check anew on the quality standards issue. The clock is ticking fast. It’s show time. Will we see a miracle? ~Barista Uno