Commission on Higher Education (CHED) chairperson Prospero De Vera III on Monday described the decision of the European Union (EU) to extend the recognition of the Philippines’ seafarer training and certification system as “a victory” following a rigorous review process.
“This is a huge victory for the country. Now, after so many years, we finally get a note that our compliance efforts are recognized by the EU,” de Vera stressed.
The decision by the European Commission (EC) to continue the recognition of the Philippines’ compliance with the Standards of Training, Certification, and Watchkeeping (STCW) Convention will avert job losses for roughly 50,000 Filipino seafarers, de Vera said.
EU’s assessment of the measures taken by the Philippines in relation to the findings of the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA) gained positive response, saying that Philippines’ measures demonstrated concrete progress and improvement regarding the compliance with the requirements of the STCW Convention.
“CHED under my watch has partnered with Marina [Maritime Industry Authority] to aggressively address the findings on the STCW compliance. Initiatives on curricular reforms, examination and assessment, shipboard training, and capacity-building training for CHED, Marina and Maritime HEIs [higher education institutions] were undertaken,” the CHED chief said.
He added that a five-year moratorium on the opening of new maritime programs was imposed to make sure the review of all maritime schools could be undertaken “before we add new ones.”
Since 2006, the EU and the EC have raised the Philippines’ compliance to STCW standards in 2021, warning they may withdraw their recognition of Filipino seafarers’ certificates unless serious measures were undertaken by Philippine authorities.
From 2006 to 2010, 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2017, the country’s highest recorded shortcomings were 76. In 2020, we were able to reduce the findings to 9.
De Vera also noted that the “victory” was achieved because President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. prioritized the resolution of this issue by tackling it in at least two cabinet meetings and instructed CHED, Marina, Department of Transportation (DOTr) and other agencies to work together to address all compliance issues.
The President, he said, also went to Brussels last December to discuss the issue of Filipino seafarers with European authorities.
“We thank Transportation Secretary Jaime Bautista and Marina for preparing the detailed compliance report with all the voluminous attachments so the EU can see that we are serious in answering the observations,” de Vera said.
The EU lauded the Philippine authorities including CHED for their efforts to comply with the STCW requirements and stated the need to continue a steady improvement in the areas indicated in the EU Report.
“CHED is ready to work with Marina and the maritime HEIs to fully implement the needed reforms based on the areas identified by the EU in its letter to guarantee that our graduates continue to be hired in international vessels,” de Vera added.
He stressed that these reforms include areas in monitoring, supervision and evaluation of training and assessment; examination and assessment of competence; program and course design and approval; availability and use of training facilities and simulators; and on-board training.