PAMI on CHED-Mar­ina shift: ‘We feel excluded’

PAMI on CHED-Mar­ina shift: ‘We feel excluded’
YASHIKA F. TORIB 31 Dec 2025 https://www.manilatimes.net/2025/12/31/business/maritime/pami-on-ched-ma...

THE Phil­ip­pine Asso­ci­ation of Mari­time Insti­tu­tions (PAMI) did not mince its words on the immin­ent trans­fer of mari­time edu­ca­tion and train­ing func­tions of the Com­mis­sion on Higher Edu­ca­tion (CHED) to the Mari­time Industry Author­ity (Mar­ina) that has seem­ingly placed mari­time schools in a limbo.

The trans­fer is part of the imple­ment­a­tion of Repub­lic Act 12021, or the Magna Carta of Filipino Sea­farers. It is expec­ted to take effect on Jan. 1, 2026.

PAMI coun­ters that the trans­fer of reg­u­lat­ory author­ity from CHED to Mar­ina is an over­reach of state con­trol that under­mines the autonomy of mari­time schools in areas such as cur­riculum, admis­sions and gov­ernance.

“There is still no clear dir­ec­tion as to where the Mari­time Higher Edu­ca­tion Insti­tu­tions (MHEIs) are going. For the past weeks, there have been regional turnover between CHED and Mar­ina, each time they refuse to answer our ques­tions. They are telling us that they will not enter­tain ques­tions because they will not be able to answer them,” says Sabino Czar Manglic­mot II, pres­id­ent of PAMI and pres­id­ent of Mid­way Col­leges Inc.

Manglic­mot opined that MHEIs are being excluded in the pro­cess, and they are “being thrown by the gov­ern­ment from one bas­ket to another without any semb­lance of dir­ec­tion.”

“What will be the situ­ation bey­ond [the trans­fer]? Iron­ic­ally, we have not been involved, invited or con­sul­ted in the trans­ition that is sup­posed to be affect­ing us. There should have been a con­sulta­tion, not just to hear us, but to under­stand the actual situ­ation on the ground. We have always been very vocal about this but no one is listen­ing,” he added.

This was echoed by Merle Jime­nez-San Pedro, sec­ret­ary­gen­eral of PAMI and pres­id­ent of Mar­iners’ Poly­tech­nic Col­leges Found­a­tion in Bicol.

“They are ask­ing why PAMI is speak­ing up just now. We have always been speak­ing up, it’s just that they are not listen­ing,” she said in an inter­view on “Any­time Mari­time,” a weekly pod­cast hos­ted by Mary Ann Pas­trana, chair­man of the Archipelago Phil­ip­pines Fer­ries Corp.

Mean­while, the year-end press con­fer­ence hos­ted by Mar­ina dis­closed that the agency will cre­ate a depart­ment to handle the newly trans­ferred func­tions from CHED.

Accord­ingly, the Office of the Deputy Admin­is­trator for Edu­ca­tion, Train­ing and Cer­ti­fic­a­tion has an approved budget and plan­tilla that is expec­ted to move its func­tions for­ward.

PAMI remains cyn­ical, however. “Mari­time edu­ca­tion is highly tech­nical and spe­cial­ized, the people from CHED undergo train­ings on how to man­age these. And even with all their infra­struc­ture and sys­tems in place, CHED is still tak­ing so much time to issue orders. How much more with Mar­ina? And yet, they want us to be fully under them by Jan. 1? That is just a few days from now,” Manglic­mot said.

PAMI also remains firm that the pro­vi­sions of the Magna Carta of Filipino Sea­farers uncon­sti­tu­tion­ally expand the law’s scope from pro­tect­ing sea­farers to reg­u­lat­ing mari­time edu­ca­tion.

Accord­ingly, this viol­ates the con­sti­tu­tional rule that a bill must embrace only one sub­ject.

“The Magna Carta is about the pro­tec­tion of Filipino sea­farers. Of course, we want them pro­tec­ted. But mari­time edu­ca­tion should not be in that law. How do you get to unify laws that are dia­met­ric­ally opposed from the begin­ning,” San Pedro said.