A WEB page enabling workers to gain rapid access to essential information about their health and safety rights and responsibilities has been set up by the Health and Safety Executive.

The "workers’ webpage" http://www.hse.gov.uk/ workers
- covers the roles and responsibilities of employers and employees, as well as issues such as ‘whistle-blowing’ and reporting accidents.

The timing is but perfect! While South Korea is aiming to emerge as the research and development (R&D) hub of Asia and the Pacific by 2015 by spending almost $5 billion on research and development in 2004, RAdm Fidel E Dinoso, president of the Philippine Merchant Marine Academy (PMMA), entered into an agreement with Mokpo Maritime University (MMU) of South Korea for the post graduate education of the academy’s faculty members. This means the PMMA faculty will be the beneficiary of the most advanced and more specific technical graduate studies in the maritime industry. What’s more, it’s for free, courtesy of MMU.

On August 26, 2005, two faculty members of PMMA were initially sent under the MMU sponsorship. Though they were reluctant at first, knowing that the instruction will be in Korean, they took the opportunity not for self glorification, but to give honor to PMMA and their country. In return for their free education, these faculty members were required to teach conversational English to the undergraduate students at MMU. 

The pioneering faculty members are 2/E Ronald Barro of Marine Engineering and Ens John Benedictos of the Marine Transportation. 2/E Barro is taking up Master of Engineering, major in Applied Mechanics and Material Engineering with specialization on Torsional Vibration while Ens Benedictos is taking up Master of Engineering, major in Marine Information System (Marine Transportation) with specialization on Design of Intelligent Navigation System.

On their first day in South Korea, the two were met by their academic advisers, namely: Prof. Gyei-Kark Park, PhD, of the Nautical Department and Prof. Don Chool Lee, PhD, of the Engineering Department. They were led to a single yet furnished dormitory room with a bathroom and kitchen.

Classes started in September. Coping was made easier because of the assistance of some colleagues who came a year earlier to South Korea. MMU also lent a helping hand by arranging for Korean language lessons for the Chinese, Filipinos, Vietnamese, and Bangladesh graduate students.

Aside from attending their classes, they took part in several important activities such as: the presentation of MMU’s proposal for Additional Navigational Equipment for Tugs and Barges plying along the coastal waters to avoid accidents on Sept. 7-8, 2005; the presentation of MMU’s proposal of a New Traffic Separation System along the approach of the Port of Ulsan to improve the flow of maritime traffic thereby easing the monitoring of ships with the existing Ulsan Vessel Traffic System (VTS) on Sept. 9-10, 2005, which was eventually approved; and the sea trial of the SH257, the biggest available engine in the market, at Samho Hyundai Shipyard from Oct. 27 to 1 Nov. 1, 2005; and the annual Korean Society of Noise and Vibration Engineering Conference at Muju, South Korea which featured all the innovations/instrumentations concerning noise and vibration analysis and measurements on Nov. 17 – 18, 2005.

Certainly, the opportunity given to PMMA, specifically its technical faculty, is accompanied by a great responsibility. Coming from a country which is the biggest supplier of seafaring manpower worldwide, it is necessary for them to excel to help strengthen the ties between the two institutions leading to a continuous pool of technical instructors to be sponsored by MMU. 

Finally, with the training these faculty members are undergoing, the PMMA looks forward to a much better maritime training for the academy undergraduate and graduate students en route to a strengthened technical capability of the Philippines in the seafaring business.

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