President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. has ordered maritime and education agencies to ensure compliance with training, education and certification standards of the European Union in order to ensure the global  recognition of Filipino seafarers' certificates.

President Ferdinand 'Bongbong' Marcos Jr. (Photo courtesy of Yummie Dingding/PPA Pool)

After acknowledging the "good decision" of the European Commission to recognize the country's standards of training certification and watchkeeping (STCW) for seafarers, he directed his administration to "move forward" and address lingering maritime education issues.

"We reported to him the continuous recognition by the European Union of the Certificate for seafarers issued by Marina (Maritime Industry Authority) and the President acknowledged the good gesture and good decision of the European Union because that would mean continuous employment for around 50,000 seafarers in Europe," Department of Transportation (DOTr) Secretary Jaime Bautista said on Tuesday, April 11.

"We also talked how we will move forward considering that there are still some issues that we need to address," Bautista added.

Marcos led a multi-sectoral meeting in Malacañang on Tuesday.

According to Marina Administrator Hernani Fabia, there are various issues that the government must address which were also the concerns stated by independent evaluators.

Commission on Higher Education (CHED) Chairperson J. Prospero De Vera III said the government must focus on three matters in order to address the issues on maritime education standards.

"We have an enhanced curriculum that has been put together by Marina, CHED, and the maritime higher education institutions, we must make sure it is implemented correctly, so the enhanced curriculum satisfies compliance with standards of the STCW," he said.

De Vera further said that they must be able to monitor maritime schools, and make sure that they have the necessary equipment, competent teachers, good facilities so that the intended competencies and outcomes can be measured correctly and satisfy the standard of the European maritime safety standards.

He added that the government must make sure that all the requirements to produce a good seafarer are there including shipboard training "so that we make sure that at the end of the whole process, we produce seafarers that are up to the international standards."

"That means we have a lot of work to do in monitoring and evaluating all the maritime education institutions in the country," he said.

De Vera also bared that CHED and Marina need more personnel in order to monitor all maritime schools around the country.

"Kailangan namin ng dagdag na tao kasi marami (We need more people because there are many schools). That's why kami ni Secretary Bautista we have to look for additional allies to help monitor compliance kasi hindi naman ganun kadami ang staff ng CHED, hindi rin ganun kadami ang staff ng Marina (because CHED and Marina do not have many personnel) and the schools are located all over the country," the CHED chairperson said.

The Philippines' compliance with the European maritime standards was finally recognized by the EU after 16 years.

Fabia clarified that the recognition of the Philippine government by the European Commission "is a normal recognition that means there is no condition."

"It is a regular recognition issued by EC and we have a clean slate to start with. But then the recognition is good for 10 years, subject to reassessment and monitoring by the EMSA. That's why we have also to conduct regular training and capacity building for our stakeholders and marine personnel," Fabia said.