We know for a fact that some manning agents in Manila and their principals are wringing their hands. Will the EU really ban Filipino seafarers? The answer depends on a prior question: how confident is the European Commission (EC) that the Philippine authorities can supervise maritime schools and training centres and ensure their compliance with the STCW standards? It’s all about Quality Control, which, unfortunately, isn’t the strongest department in the Filipino seafarer factory.

The EMSA (European Maritime Safety Agency, the EC’s inspection arm) team has been to the country thrice – in 2006, 2010 and March of 2012. We’d be surprised if they haven’t noticed that the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) lacks an assessment document by which it can objectively gauge the performance of maritime academies. What the CHED has is a checklist of things that the schools should have – down to the number of blackboards and chalks in their classrooms. It’s like the grocery list housewives make so they’ll remember how many cartons of milk or packs of hotdogs to buy. The Maritime Training Council (MTC) has a similar list for purposes of accrediting training courses.

Capt Michael Cuanzon, a former consultant to the CHED and MTC, is appalled. In 2000, upon the invitation of the US Coast Guard, he traveled to the US to have a look-see at the American system of maritime training. He brought back and turned over to the MTC a bundle of papers containing guidelines on how to develop what Capt Cuanzon calls a “valid and reliable” assessment document. Alas, the MTC officials just stored it all away in some cabinet to gather dust. Says Capt Cuanzon: “The MTC is more than a decade behind in STCW administration.”

There’s one other problem with the Quality Control Department of the Filipino seafarer factory. Neither the CHED nor the MTC has enough people to inspect all or most of the institutions they supervise. Both agencies, in fact, lack in-house maritime expertise and have to rely on private sector individuals to conduct the nation-wide inspections. But even if the CHED and MTC were adequately manned, the question arises: how can they evaluate the performance of the schools and training centres without a proper assessment document?

The authorities have two options. They can just go on believing, like most folks in Manila, that the EC will not impose a ban because Filipino seafarers are too numerous and therefore indispensable. Or they can address the quality control issues and really convince the EC that it’s an ably-run factory turning out quality products. The first is blind faith; the second is faith coupled with action. ~Barista Uno