Source: ABS-CBN News

MANILA — The 17 Filipino seafarers held hostage by Iran-backed Houthi rebels in a hijacked ship in the Red Sea were safe so far, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said on Friday. 

“It is the ship that was targeted. It just so happened there were Filipino crew there,” Foreign Affairs Undersecretary Eduardo de Vega said. 

“The good news is that we do know that our seafarers are fine and that the Houthi rebels are indicating consistently that they do not intend to harm them,” he told ANC.

Authorities have assured the families of the hostages that the government is “on top of the situation”, De Vega said. 

Israeli authorities over the weekend reported that a British-owned cargo ship operated by a Japanese company was seized in the Red Sea by the armed group. 

The Nippon Yusen K.K., known as NYK Line, has a total of 25 people on board. The crew hails from Bulgaria, Ukraine, the Philippines, Mexico and Romania, Kyodo News reported. 

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Labor and Employment Secretary Rosalinda Dimapilis-Baldoz reported yesterday that the Philippine Mission to the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland has transmitted the Philippines’s instrument of ratification of ILO Convention 185, or the Seafarers’ Identity Convention (Revised) 2003 to the International Labor Organization (ILO).

“Ambassador Evan P. Garcia, Permanent Representative of the Philippine Mission in Geneva and our Labor Attache Manuel G. Imson had recently deposited the Philippine instrument of ratification of ILO C185 to the ILO headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland,” said Baldoz.

“As a procedure, the ILO issues a Certificate of Deposit in receipt of the Instrument of Ratification. The formal registration will commence and thereafter, the Philippines will be notified of the actual date of ratification and corresponding date of the instrument’s entry into force,” Baldoz explained.

She also said that the ratification instrument was handed by the aforesaid Philippine officials to Director Cleopatra Doumbia-Henry of the International Labour Standards Department of ILO who has conveyed her appreciation for the Philippines’s ratification of ILO C185.

President Benigno S. Aquino III has ratified ILO C185 early this year. The Convention, which will ensure and secure and continuous employment of Filipino seafarers, provides for a uniform Seafarers’ Identity Document (SID) that countries are required to issue to their seafarers.

Baldoz said the signing of the instrument of ratification of ILO C185 signifies the Philippines’s efforts to guarantee the security and employment of all Filipino seafarers.

ILO C185 also lays down the requirements of the processes and procedures for the issuance of SIDs of the ratifying countries.

All countries ratifying ILO C185 are required to issue new SIDs that conform to the requirements specified in the standard known as ILO SID-0002. The standards puts in place a comprehensive security system, the first global implementation of biometric identification technology on a mandatory basis, thus enabling positive identification of the seafarer that holds the document.

“The Philippines has done extensive work for the ratification and for the eventual implementation of ILO C185. Because of this, Filipino seafarers will be able to move more easily around the world with this international document,” said Baldoz.

ILO C185 revised the earlier Seafarers’ Identity Documents Convention, 1958 (No. 108). The changes in the new Convention were related to seafarers’ identification.

Aside from the normal physical features for a modern machine-readable identity document, the new SID under ILO C185 carries a fingerprint-based biometric template, adopted with the agreement of the world’s ship owners and seafarer organizations and must conform to an international standard enabling the biometric templates on a SID issued by one country to be correctly read by devices used in other countries.

In addition, with the new SID, border authorities around the world will be able to check the authenticity of a SID produced by a seafarer, as the new Convention enables them to verify information in the SID either by reference to the national electronic database in which each issued

News Release 105-2012

SID must be stored, or through the national focal point of the country of issuance, which focal point must be available 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

ILO C185 also requires the country issuing SIDs to arrange for an independent evaluation of the administration of its issuance system to be carried out at least once every five years. The evaluation report shall be reviewed within the framework of the ILO, with a view to the maintenance of a list of countries that fully meet the minimum requirements laid down by the Convention.

ILO Convention 185 also retains some features present in the old 1958 Convention, such as “shore leave”, thus, enabling seafarers to go ashore in foreign ports after weeks, or even months, on board, and facilities for joining their ship in transit across a country for professional reasons.

“By ratifying ILO C185, the Philippines joins an international security system which facilitates the admission of Filipino seafarers into the territory of other ratifying countries for shore leave and other professional purposes,” explained Baldoz.

-ctmaring

The European Maritime Safety Agency is one of the European Union’s decentralised agencies.
Based in Lisbon, the Agency provides
technical assistance and support to the
European Commission and Member States in the development and implementation of EU legislation on maritime safety, pollution by ships and maritime security. It has also been given operational tasks in the field of oil pollution response, vessel monitoring and in long-range identification and tracking of vessels.

Labor and Employment Secretary Rosalinda Dimapilis-Baldoz yesterday announced that representatives from the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA) have arrived yesterday to conduct a follow-up visit and verify the implementation of corrective measures to their audit findings in 2006 and 2010.

“The EMSA representatives will be in Manila from 7-14 March 2012, and we welcome this follow-up visit as an opportunity for the Philippine government to prove its efforts to continuously improve its maritime education, training and certification system. We have already met and coordinated with all concerned parties involved in the follow up visit to ensure the corrective actions previously reported to EMSA are being implemented,” Baldoz said in a press statement.

It can be recalled that the visit of EMSA inspectors in the country in 2006 and 2010 revealed some deficiencies in areas relating to maritime administration, especially with regards the monitoring of maritime education and training institutions (METIs), quality standards system, requirements for seafarers certification, requirements for on-board training, implementation of the Management Level Courses, and the improvement of the maritime training institution’s equipment and facilities.

In August 2011, the Philippines submitted its report on the corrective actions taken with regards to the noted deficiencies by EMSA.

Moreover, in January of this year, updates on the status of such corrective actions were likewise submitted to EMSA.

Baldoz expressed optimism that the EMSA inspectors will find merit in the country’s corrective actions and will further strengthen the European Union’s confidence in the competence of Filipino seafarers.

EMSA is expected to visit concerned government offices, such as the Maritime Training Council (MTC), Professional Regulation Commission (PRC), Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA), and the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) to validate the implementation of the measures they have taken to comply with the deficiencies.

A visit to two (2) training centers is likewise included in their itinerary.