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.

By Rey Gambe

While more and more international shipowners are favoring the move of the Panama Maritime Authority to institutionalize upgrade courses for crew promotions for all merchant vessels flying the Panamanian flag in response to the current global shortage of ship officers, it appears that a coordinative system still needs to be put in place in the processing of documents of Filipino seafarers that are due for deployment onboard Panamanian vessels.

This issue came to light when a Filipino 2nd Assistant Engineer (equivalent to 3rd Engineer), serving onboard a Panamanian-flag vessel of a Japanese principal of Bridge Marine Corporation, got promoted directly by the shipowner, by way of upgrade courses, to the rank of 1st Assistant Engineer (equivalent to 2nd Engineer).

Apparently, the Filipino engine officer has taken the licensure exams of the Professional Regulations Commission (PRC) for six times already in the past but was never able to pass it. Nonetheless, he has successfully served out six shipboard contracts working as 2nd AE for different vessels of the same shipowner.

Having been aware of the consistently good performance of the Filipino engine officer combined with the long experience he has piled up, the Japanese shipowner deemed that it was about time for him to assume the next higher rank for his next shipboard assignment.
FULL STORY >> 

Subic Bay Freeport Expansion to Cater to Maritime Industry Investments
By Rey Gambe

More than six months after assuming the chairmanship of the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA), Commo. Feliciano G. Salonga is having fun getting the job done at the Subic Bay Freeport, the country’s premiere investment and tourism hub.

We’re upbeat on the future of Subic. We are so positive with the future of Subic that we’re now in the point of declining investors because we are slowly running out of space for them,” points out Chairman Salonga matter-of-factly.

Following the official entry of Hanjin Heavy Industries with its planned ship components building facility at the Redondo Peninsula in the Subic Bay Freeport, Chairman Salonga has all the right reasons to be bullish about Subic. For one, the Hanjin project will be the single biggest investment ever to land at the Freeport. And for the other, Hanjin’s entry would make the Philippines the fourth largest shipbuilding country in the world.
FULL STORY  >>

‘MLC Train’ Appears Unstoppable
By Carmela Huelar

If the government has a cha-cha train, the maritime industry has to deal with an MLC train that does not only stop at railroad crossings, it is also hell bent on running over any one who gets on its way.

That’s the long and short of the Management Level Course because despite the overwhelming opposition from manning agents and the seafarers themselves, government officials from the Maritime Training Center (MTC) and Professional Regulations Commission (PRC) is pushing through with the implementation of the MLC for ship officers within the year.

Efforts so far by parties concerned to at least come to a workable solution appeared to have grounded to a halt with tempers flaring and discussion turning into a contest of who has the louder voice to get the message across.
FULL STORY >>

On its 186th Year
PMMA Sails the Waters of Excellence in Maritime Education with Renewed Zest

Turning in its 186th year last April 5, 2006, hardly any maritime institution in the Philippines or in Asia comes close to the track record of Philippine Merchant Marine Academy (PMMA) as the oldest maritime school. PMMA would have a century of difference with the second liners, at the very least.

This noteworthy advantage in terms of history and experience in maritime education is what PMMA highlighted during the four-day celebration of its 186th Foundation Day held at its vast 62.5-hectare compound in San Narciso, Zambales on April 5 – 8, 2006 through the fitting theme: “PMMA: Bridging the Past to the Future.”

The Foundation Day event centered on bringing together the academy’s alumni, from as far back as the 50s when it was then known as Philippine Nautical School, up to the present generation of young but certainly promising graduates. PMMA also had its work cut out when it got the collaboration of the PMMA Alumni Association and in the process, integrate the Grand Alumni Homecoming as a major component of the Foundation Day activities.
FULL STORY  >>

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