SENATE Majority Leader Joel Villanueva on Sunday said that the reputation and livelihood of thousands of Filipino seafarers are at stake if the Philippines will fail to comply with the European qualifications of maritime education, training and certification.

Villanueva urged the Maritime Industry Authority and the Commission on Higher Education to act swiftly to ensure the country’s compliance to the International Convention on Standards of Training Certification and Watchkeeping for Seafarers.

“Our counterparts in France speak highly of the dedication and work ethic of Filipino seafarers working in European vessels. We need to uphold that sterling reputation by securing the qualifications of our seafarers under European Union standards,” he said.

The senator noted that the most urgent concern is to pass the evaluation by the European Maritime Safety Agency of the country’s STCW compliance set in November.

The country has not been able to pass EMSA audits since 2006 and failure to comply with the STCW would result in the revocation of the recognition of Filipino seafarers’ qualifications.

“We assured in our meetings with members of the French Parliament that we are doing everything we can to maintain the EU qualifications of our Filipino seafarers. This is a promise not only to our European partners, but also to our hardworking Filipino seafarers and their families,” Villanueva said.

“We need to find how we have been consistently failing the evaluations since 2006, and how MARINA and CHED can snap this losing streak. How did we let this go on for so long? Now, the entire industry and people’s livelihoods are in danger,” he added.

According to the Department of Migrant Workers, this is the final year for the Philippines to adopt corrective measures to fully comply with the international standard.

Failure to comply with the SCTW standards will affect 30,615 Filipino seafarers currently working on EU-flagged ships, based on the numbers from the EMSA Outlook for 2020.

Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas data show that as of 2021, Filipino seafarers sent home a total of $6.54 billion or P378.96 billion.

“Marina and CHED, in coordination with agencies such as the DMW, should exert all efforts to help the industry and go full speed ahead to support the jobs of our Filipino seafarers,” Villanueva said.