Manning group petitions for Empedrad's retention as Marina chief

Manning group petitions for Empedrad's retention as Marina chief
Yashika F. Torib June 3, 2022 https://www.manilatimes.net/2022/06/03/business/maritime/manning-group-p...

A group of licensed maritime manning agencies has signed a petition letter addressed to President-elect Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to retain Vice Admiral Robert A. Empedrad as the administrator of the Maritime Industry Authority.

In a petition letter signed on June 2, 2022, the Association of Licensed Manning Agencies (ALMA) Maritime Group appealed to President Marcos Jr. to keep Empedrad as the Marina administrator.

"He re-organized the Marina and implemented measures to ensure that the highly technical and demanding mandate of the office can be effectively discharged by competent human resources," ALMA said in the statement.

"Remarkably, the most extraordinary circumstance of the outbreak of the pandemic did not prevent Administrator Empedrad from effectively carrying out his duties as Marina Chief. We were able to observe how he would humbly listen to various stakeholders and meticulously study the situation to be able to address the urgent concern of repatriation of Filipino seafarers and the conduct of crew change for seafarers deemed essential workers or frontliners.

In addition, the group said that the vaccination drive to ensure that Filipino seafarers would be vaccinated as required by foreign employers was successfully handled by the Marina.

"Most importantly, Administrator Empedrad has shown his sincerity and commitment to addressing the lingering issues relating to the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA) audit, a concern that has regrettably been insufficiently attended to for decades and has thus stand to delist all Filipino seafarer officers from being employed on board European ships," it added.

The group, composed of manning agencies that deploy around 174,000 Filipino seafarers on international ocean-going vessels, commended MARINA under Empedrad's leadership and affirmed that "the shortcomings of Philippine maritime training institutions are continually rectified, a positive development that the MARINA candidly but dauntlessly presented to the European authorities."

ALMA likewise petitioned for Capt. Jeffrey Solon as Deputy Administrator. He was the chairperson of the Technical Working Group (TWG) for the vaccination drive for Filipino seafarers.

"Captain Solon ably assisted Administrator Empedrad with his technical expertise honed during his illustrious career as a merchant marine captain and as a corporate official.

"As the designated chair of the pertinent Technical Working Group (TWG), Captain Solon led the meticulous preparation of the detailed report in response to the [EMSA] audit," ALMA said.

ALMA noted that among the findings during the EMSA audit is the lack of continuity with the Philippines' maritime industry authority.

"The retention of Administrator Empedrad and Captain Solon will indeed be viewed by the European shipping community as a manifestation of the Philippines' sincerity in sustaining the initiated reforms in shipping standards," it said.

ALMA maintained that Empedrad and Solon have shown genuine service and deep concern for the maritime industry, particularly for the domestic crewing industry which, for the record, contributes around Six Billion US Dollars (US$ 6B) annually to the Philippine economy.

"We present this petition for Administrator Empedrad and Captain Solon to continue their service at the Marina. We are confident that these gentlemen will indeed be an asset to your administration," ALMA concluded.