{"id":238237,"date":"2019-11-24T00:47:21","date_gmt":"2019-11-24T05:47:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=238237"},"modified":"2019-11-24T00:47:21","modified_gmt":"2019-11-24T05:47:21","slug":"ph-sailors-2019-cash-transfers-seen-breaching-6-b-mark","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2019\/11\/24\/ph-sailors-2019-cash-transfers-seen-breaching-6-b-mark\/","title":{"rendered":"PH sailors\u2019 2019 cash transfers seen breaching $6-B mark"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\u201cWe expect the annual cash transfers from Filipino officers and ratings on international ocean-going vessels to continue to increase by mid to high single-digit rate,\u201d said ACTS-OFW chairman Aniceto Bertiz III. (File Photo<\/a>: Cong. John Bertiz\/Facebook<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA<\/strong>\u00a0— The cash sent home by Filipino sailors via bank channels alone is projected to surpass the USD6 billion (PHP300 billion) mark this year, the ACTS-OFW Coalition of Organizations said on Sunday.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe expect the annual cash transfers from Filipino officers and ratings on international ocean-going vessels to continue to increase by mid to high single-digit rate,\u201d said ACTS-OFW chairman Aniceto Bertiz III.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe growth is being driven by sustained enlistment, amid the tight global supply of ship officers in particular,\u201d Bertiz, a former member of Congress, said.<\/p>\n

Filipino sailors remitted via bank wire a total of USD4.87 billion in cash from January to September this year, up 8 percent versus USD4.51 billion in the same nine-month period in 2018, Bertiz said.<\/p>\n

Bertiz said the bulk of the cash from Filipino sailors in the first three quarters came from: the United States (USD1.8 billion); Singapore (USD512.5 million); Germany (USD423.8 million); Japan (USD388.1 million); United Kingdom (USD242.5 million); Netherlands (USD216.9 million); Hong Kong (USD154.6 million); Panama (USD126.9 million); Cyprus (USD124.4 million); and Greece (USD103.2 million).<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Bertiz welcomed a Department of Labor and Employment report indicating that 11 Filipino sailors kidnapped in two separate piracy attacks in West Africa earlier this month would likely be freed before Christmas.<\/p>\n

\u201cPiracy attacks, which have doubled this year, are a severe occupational hazard for our sailors, along with shipping accidents,\u201d Bertiz said.<\/p>\n

The Philippines is the world\u2019s second-largest supplier of licensed ship officers next to China, and the biggest provider of unlicensed ship ratings or non-officer crew ahead of China, according to the London-based International Chamber of Shipping (ICS).<\/p>\n

The other top suppliers of ship officers and ratings are India, Indonesia, the Russian Federation, and Ukraine.<\/p>\n

ICS earlier cited a global shortage of some 16,500 ship officers and an oversupply of ratings.<\/p>\n

ACTS-OFW is counting on the revival of the compulsory Reserve Officers\u2019 Training Corps (ROTC) program to boost the competitiveness of the country\u2019s future sailors.<\/p>\n

Shipping companies prefer to recruit merchant mariners with basic military skills, Bertiz said.<\/p>\n

In his fourth State of the Nation Address in July this year, President Rodrigo Duterte had urged Congress to revive the mandatory two-year ROTC course for all male students in Grades 11 and 12.\u00a0(PR)<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u00a0— The cash sent home by Filipino sailors via bank channels alone is projected to surpass the USD6 billion (PHP300 …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":170428,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-238237","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","category-news-ph","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/238237","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=238237"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/238237\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":238238,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/238237\/revisions\/238238"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/170428"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=238237"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=238237"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=238237"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}