DMW suspends manning firm’s license over PH seafarer’s disappearance

By Marita Moaje, Philippine News Agency

MISSING. The Department of Migrant Workers (DMW) on Thursday (Feb. 6, 2025) said it launched a full investigation into the disappearance of 28-year-old Filipino seafarer Ralph Bobiles. DMW chief Hans Leo Cacdac said Bobiles went missing on Dec. 5, 2024, while onboard the MV Prestige Ace. (Photo grabbed from Ralph Bobiles/Facebook via PNA)

MANILA – The Department of Migrant Workers (DMW) has launched a full investigation into the disappearance of 28-year-old Filipino seafarer Ralph Bobiles while onboard MV Prestige Ace on Dec. 5 last year.

In a media briefing Thursday at the DMW office in Makati City, Migrant Workers Secretary Hans Leo Cacdac said they have suspended the license of the Parola Maritime Agency Corporation, the manning firm responsible for his deployment, for failing to provide a sufficient explanation of the incident.

“We are not satisfied with the explanation of the license-manning agencies. Actually, the lack of an explanation from the license-manning agency, and therefore, we have suspended the license-manning agency,” he said.

Cacdac said the DMW was neither provided with any investigation report nor a captain’s report on the incident.

He added that when the DMW asked for the presentation of Bobiles’ co-seafarers, as MV Prestige Ace has an all-FIlipino crew, only five out of the 16 seafarers were presented to the department.

Cacdac said the ship had just departed from Veracruz Port in Mexico and was en route to Baltimore, Maryland in the United States when Bobiles vanished.

However, the ship’s crew failed to report his disappearance to US authorities upon arrival in Baltimore, raising serious concerns about possible negligence.

“So these are all badges of negligence, of non-care, and therefore we are taking action against the licensed manning agency and the principal shipowner in this case, until they account until they fully explain what happened on board that ship,” he added.

Cacdac, meanwhile, rejected speculations that Bobiles may have taken his own life, as no concrete evidence supports this claim.

He said the seafarer had spoken with his wife shortly before his disappearance and had expressed excitement about his upcoming promotion from cadet to ordinary seaman, which would have secured his position in the company.

“Due to be promoted siya. Kaya anumang suspicion or doubt that he took his own life should not be the primary reason kung bakit siya nawala, kasi the circumstances, ang information ng promotion ay galing mismo sa agency. So bakit ganun? Bakit walang sapat na paliwanag kung paano siya nawala? (He is due to be promoted. So any suspicion or doubt that he took his own life should not be the primary reason why he disappeared, because the circumstances, the promotion information came from the agency itself. So why is that? Why is there no adequate explanation as to how he disappeared?

),” Cacdac said.

Cacdac said the recently passed Magna Carta for Filipino Seafarers mandates that families of missing seafarers must be given access to investigative reports and all relevant information regarding their loved ones’ disappearance.

The DMW has vowed to pursue all legal avenues to ensure accountability and justice for Bobiles and his grieving family, as the agency takes immediate action to help the family, including his three young children, aged five to eight years.

“Kaya again, we’re taking the agency and the ship owner to task about this matter. One life is just too many, at ang pamilya, nagdudusa, nagdadalamhati (and the family is suffering, grieving), they deserve to know what happened, just as the DMW deserves to know what happened,” Cacdac said.