ALMA: Shipown­ers, sea­farer spend­ing drive P1T eco­nomic impact

ALMA: Shipown­ers, sea­farer spend­ing drive P1T eco­nomic impact
REDGE CAPILOS 13 May 2026 https://www.pressreader.com/philippines/manila-times/20260513/2820462187...

OFTEN seen as an industry sus­tained by sea­farers’ remit­tances, the mari­time sec­tor has a deeper eco­nomic real­ity that was high­lighted at the SAFETY4SEA Manila Forum 2026 held at the Sheraton Manila Hotel on April 16.

In her present­a­tion, Iris Baguilat, chair­man of the ALMA Mari­time Group, said a sig­ni­fic­ant domestic eco­nomic con­tri­bu­tion is often unquan­ti­fied.

“The shipown­ers inject P54.3 bil­lion before a single sailor steps on board. The sea­farer has to be trained, has to go to PEME, [pro­cess doc­u­ments], and all of this is part of a cost paid for by the shipown­ers. No sea­farer is made to answer for these costs unless it is STCW train­ing, which is his respons­ib­il­ity.”

She emphas­ized that the industry’s full impact becomes clear when account­ing for the eco­nomic mul­ti­plier.

Data from a 2025 ALMA study, The Phil­ip­pine Man­ning Ser­vice Industry: Pro­spects and Impact on the Phil­ip­pine Eco­nomy and Industry Devel­op­ment Policy, showed that every peso spent gen­er­ates P3.20 for the Phil­ip­pine eco­nomy.

The mul­ti­plier comes from the spend­ing of sea­farer fam­il­ies once remit­tances reach home.

Study fig­ures from 2024 showed shipown­ers con­trib­uted P53.4 bil­lion to the eco­nomy for edu­ca­tion and train­ing, med­ical ser­vices, crew logist­ics, and other related expenses. Com­bined with aver­age house­hold expendit­ures of P277.4 bil­lion annu­ally, these trans­late to about P1.06 tril­lion after apply­ing the mul­ti­plier.

Baguilat poin­ted out that while the con­tri­bu­tion is sig­ni­fic­ant, it remains volat­ile and depend­ent on the employ­ab­il­ity of Filipino sea­farers, which in turn hinges on shipown­ers’ con­fid­ence and trust.

“In global ship­ping, when con­fid­ence breaks — ships leave.”

She warned that the industry’s biggest risk today is not com­pet­i­tion but a loss of con­fid­ence, attrib­ut­ing this to factors that include onboard acci­dents, fraud­u­lent med­ical claims, ambu­lance chas­ing, and unreas­on­able sanc­tions and pen­al­ties, among oth­ers, under­scor­ing the need to imple­ment reforms under the Magna Carta of Filipino Sea­farers.

“If policies become unpre­dict­able, claims are unreas­on­able, pen­al­ties become blanket, taxes feel arbit­rary, the legis­lat­ive reforms are attacked. We have to defend the reforms estab­lished in the Magna Carta, par­tic­u­larly against ambu­lance chas­ing,” she said. In addi­tion, ALMA encour­aged the gov­ern­ment to strengthen cer­ti­fic­a­tion and com­pli­ance mon­it­or­ing of man­ning agen­cies and adopt a “Tiered Pen­alty and Enforce­ment Mat­rix” that imposes tar­geted and pro­por­tion­ate sanc­tions based on the fre­quency and sever­ity of offenses.

“Mean­ing, the first offense will not auto­mat­ic­ally res­ult in shut­ting down the busi­ness,” Baguilat explained.

The pro­posal aims to pro­tect the invest­ments of com­pli­ant agen­cies and part­ner shipown­ers.

In the global ship­ping industry, she added, a loss of con­fid­ence can lead to shipown­ers with­draw­ing their ves­sels from cer­tain mar­kets.

“Most shipown­ers do not argue; they just quietly move their con­tracts to other coun­tries.”

Baguilat also serves as the pres­id­ent of man­ning agency Döhle Seafront.