Overseas Filipinos, who work in various industries such as in healthcare, logistics, hospitality, or maritime, are called “modern-day heroes,” but a lot of government agencies in our country still treat them like third-class citizens with tons of requirements and prohibitive cost for papers and documents.
In all fairness, the government has been implementing changes to make sure that the burden cast on overseas workers are being eased, with stricter rules disallowing fixers, and streamlining of processes to cut agonizing lines and prevent multiple back-and-forth visits to different offices.
One of the brighter news arising from our country recently, aside from the decreasing number of new COVID-19 cases, is from the Department of Transportation (DOTr), specifically the Maritime Industry Authority (Marina). Administrator Robert Empedrad has announced that its board has approved to make the seaman’s book free for first-time applicants, and to provide a 50 percent discount for seafarers who will renew. This move, Empedrad said, is to “ease the financial burden on our hero seafarers, especially during this pandemic.” DOTr Secretary Art Tugade also lauded this move, citing its timeliness during this crisis and an appropriate way to honor the Filipino seafarers—our modern-day heroes.
Every seafarer needs a seaman’s book, which is like a passport, but instead of countries, shows embarkation and disembarkation dates as well as vessel and rank. This is something a seafarer must always bring with him or her when sailing the seas of the world. The only agency that can issue this in our country is Marina. Thus, the announcement from this agency is indeed welcome news as a seaman’s book costs between P1,000 and P1,800. On the other hand, the renewal cost, which will be discounted to half, will be until December 2022. It would be worth noting that both the lifting and discount of the fees are done for the first time in history.
The timeliness of this move couldn’t be more appropriate. Filipino seafarers were the most affected by the pandemic. According to the Seatrade Maritime News, the “status of the Philippines as the world’s largest supplier of seafarers to international shipping took a huge hit in 2020 as the COVD-19 pandemic caused extended lockdowns and border closures.” Data also reflected this crisis, as per Marina, seafarers deployed overseas dropped 54 percent in 2020 to 217,223, which is low compared to 469,996 in 2019. The drop in numbers also showed the negative effect on Filipino cruise ship staff, who were suddenly out of work when cruises were cancelled or delayed due to the pandemic.
As the world enters 2022, various countries such as in Europe have started “adjusting” the way they treat the coronavirus. Spain’s health ministry has started plans to “treat COVID-19 like the flu, where we have to learn to live with it, as we do with many other viruses.” Nearer our country, Thailand’s health authorities have approved new guidelines outlining parameters for declaring the COVID-19 pandemic into an endemic disease.
All these developments are welcome news, not only for citizens of the world, but most especially for our overseas Filipino workers who rely on travelling and transiting between nations to make a living, such as seafarers. For so long, they have contributed the dollar infusions, which allowed our local economy to float amid financial crises and tumultuous times. As they recover from the pandemic, apply once more to jobs in the maritime industry, it is now our time to assist them and for the government to make life better for them.