In late August of this year, Philippine Labour Secretary Rosalinda Dimapilis-Baldoz, who also heads the Maritime Training Council, wrote the European Commission (EC) to detail the steps taken by Manila to address the STCW-related deficiencies identified earlier in the EMSA (European Maritime Safety Agency) Report on the Philippines. The communication was sent through diplomatic channels just before the 31st August 2011 deadline given by the EC. Like the EMSA report, this document was not made public. This has led to a situation which reminds us of the famous parable of the blind men and an elephant – folks giving all sort of answers as to what the elephant is like.
As with the EMSA Report, Marine Café Blog is making the document available to those who are interested (with the exception of the press, which should be doing its job of securing a copy of the document). Please email your request together with the name of your organisation to: marinecafeblog@gmail.com. We believe the maritime community at large and especially the Filipino seafarers deserve to know the real score. It’s time to stop groping and guessing what the elephant really looks like. ~Barista Uno
NOTE: The complete EMSA report can be downloaded from Marine Café Blog’s Downloads section.
