Abuses becoming the ‘norm’ as Filipino sailors afraid to speak up

Abuses becoming the ‘norm’ as Filipino sailors afraid to speak up
Kathleen de Villa - September 04, 2025 https://globalnation.inquirer.net/290217/abuses-becoming-the-norm-as-ph-...

Seafarers processing their employment documents gather at the Seafarer’s Shed on T.M. Kalaw Street in Ermita, Manila, in this file photo taken in 2022. —GRIG C. MONTEGRANDE/INQUIRER FILE PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines — Filipino seafarers continue to suffer from abandonment and abuse due to their fear of losing their jobs if they speak up.

During the three-day International Conference on Seafarers’ Human Rights, Safety and Well-being, which ended on Wednesday with the Philippines as the host, Captain Jasmin Labarda of the Associated Marine Officers’ and Seamen’s Union of the Philippines (Amosup) said that many Filipino seafarers have come to “accept” the various forms of abuses happening at sea as the “norm.”

“They have accepted abuses. Nobody would like to speak up. And I’ve asked my colleagues, ‘Why are you not speaking up?’ They said, ‘I don’t want to lose my job; nobody will believe me,’” Labarda said at the sidelines of the conference on Tuesday.

The cases of abuses, especially by companies that cite bankruptcy and abandon ships while at sea, leave seafarers having to fend for themselves with limited supplies of food, fresh water, and fuel available to them, she added.

According to Labarda, who heads the 53-year-old union for seafarers, these cases happen more often than reported, with shipowners escaping accountability.