{"id":266841,"date":"2020-08-28T04:59:33","date_gmt":"2020-08-28T08:59:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=266841"},"modified":"2020-08-28T04:59:33","modified_gmt":"2020-08-28T08:59:33","slug":"marina-commits-ph-as-major-intl-crew-change-hub-in-asean-meet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2020\/08\/28\/marina-commits-ph-as-major-intl-crew-change-hub-in-asean-meet\/","title":{"rendered":"MARINA commits PH as major int\u2019l crew change hub in ASEAN meet"},"content":{"rendered":"
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FILE: MARINA Administrator Robert A Empedrad joins the 39th ASEAN Maritime Transport Working Group (39th MTWG) as Head of the Philippine Delegation. (Photo<\/a>: Maritime Industry Authority\/Facebook<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 The Philippines, represented by the Maritime Industry Authority (MARINA), has committed to becoming a major international hub for crew change during the 39th Meeting of the Maritime Transport Working Group of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) as part of its role as a major provider of seafarers to the global labor market.<\/p>\n

In a statement on Friday, MARINA said the meeting, held virtually for the first time on Thursday amidst the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) pandemic, also included the ASEAN\u2019s other dialogue partners such as China, Japan, Korea, and the International Maritime Organization (IMO).<\/p>\n

MARINA Administrator Robert Empedrad, who served as head of the Philippine delegation, said the Philippines will continue to cooperate with member states of the international maritime community for the \u201cfacilitation and safe movement of the world\u2019s seafarers\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201c[Seafarers] are the lifeline of the world\u2019s economy as such they are our essential workers. In the Philippines, our seafarers are our indispensable partners for our country\u2019s economic development,” Empedrad said.<\/p>\n

To date, he said the Philippines has already opened the Ports of Manila, Bataan, and Subic for international crew change\u2014with more ports planned to open as crew change hubs in the future.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur maritime sector is working diligently to activate crew change hubs in the country to give maritime vessels the avenue to refresh their manpower, and to provide relief to our hardworking seafarers,\u201d Empedrad said.<\/p>\n

In a message, Department of Transportation (DOTr) Assistant Secretary Goddes Hope Libiran said these crew change hubs are required to have a \u2018one-stop-shop\u2019 to process the crew changes.<\/p>\n

This, she said, include health screening (with RT-PCR testing), customs, immigration, and quarantine facilities.<\/p>\n

\u201cA location should have these requirements in place to be activated as a crew change hub. Once other ports are able to comply with these requirements, then they will be opened as crew change hubs,\u201d Libiran said.<\/p>\n

Maritime initiatives amidst Covid-19<\/strong><\/p>\n

During the meeting, Empedrad also noted the country\u2019s \u201cwhole-of-government\u201d approach to keeping the maritime industry afloat during the pandemic.<\/p>\n

He said this includes several measures that ensure the operability of supply chains such as the use of automated systems to lessen personal transactions and the creation of a Shipping Protection Office to protect both domestic and international shippers against \u201cunreasonable fees and charges\u201d imposed by shipping lines.<\/p>\n

He said the country is also working on the decongestion of its ports, has issued a directive to all shipping lines to provide cargo space and allocation for agricultural and food products with preferential cargo rates, and the extension of STCW certificates for seafarers still on-board ships.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u00a0\u2013 The Philippines, represented by the Maritime Industry Authority (MARINA), has committed to becoming a major international hub for crew …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":266842,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-266841","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","category-news-ph","mauthors-raymond-carl-dela-cruz","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266841","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=266841"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266841\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":266843,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266841\/revisions\/266843"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/266842"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=266841"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=266841"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=266841"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}