Shipowners want local seafarers excluded from proposed maritime Magna Carta

Shipowners want local seafarers excluded from proposed maritime Magna Carta
Feb 3, 2023 https://www.rappler.com/nation/shipowners-want-local-seafarers-excluded-...

improve the local industry and the plight of Filipino seafarers

CEBU, Philippines – Local shipowners and executives want seafarers of domestic vessels excluded for the proposed Magna Carta intended to lift Philippine maritime industry to international standards.

The group announced its objections during a public hearing of the House committee of overseas workers affairs held Thursday, February 2, at Bai Hotel in Mandaue City, Cebu.

The shipowners told lawmakers that they were concerned because the proposed legislation was being patterned after the Maritime Labour Convention (MLC) of 2006, which imposes costly international standards.

“If you read all the provisions, they are all for international trade, for international ships …domestic ships are excluded, those from in-land territorial waters, that’s in the framework of the MLC,” Lucio Lim Jr., the chairman of the Philippine Coastline Shipping Association, told Rappler.