MANILA, Philippines – President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. was scheduled to sign into law a measure that codifies the rights of Filipino seafarers, but appeared to have backed out at the last minute.

Publicity materials that appeared on state broadcaster RTVM included the Magna Carta for Seafarers on the list of three bills that the President was supposed to approve on Monday, February 26, but he instead only signed the other two: the Tatak Pinoy (Proudly Filipino) Act, and amendments to the Centenarian Act.

The Department of Migrant Workers had already handed out press kits during the ceremonial signing on Monday, and DMW Officer-in-charge Hans Cacdac was already in the venue.

Sought for clarification, Presidential Communications Office Secretary Cheloy Garafil said the bill was “under further review.”

The bill seeks to assert seafarers’ rights to just terms and conditions of work, standardize their employment contracts, and establish guidelines to ensure quality training for them.

Marcos certified the bill as urgent in September 2023, saying the legislation would guarantee to the international community “that the Philippines will comply with its obligations of ensuring that Filipino seafarers’ training, facilities, and equipment are at par with the international standards and those set by relevant international conventions.”

It came on the heels of challenges faced by seafarers in their accreditation with the European market.

Some seafarer groups and militant organizations flagged the approved House version of the bill, calling it watered-down and an insult to seafarers, due to the exclusion of fisherfolk from the measure, and the lack of a security of tenure provision for employees who have provided at least one year of cumulative service.

They also opposed the proposal to put compensation won by seafarers against their employers on escrow, which means that the complainants won’t have access to the payment in full while the employer appeals the decision.

It is unclear if these contentious provisions were removed in the bicameral version of the measure.

Filipino seafarers are the backbone of the global maritime industry, with the Philippines sending 400,000 workers overseas every year from 2017 up until the COVID-19 pandemic.

‘Problems on jurisdiction’

House lawmakers on Monday afternoon adopted Concurrent Resolution 23, which withdraws Senate Bill 2221 and House Bill 7325 from being submitted to the Office of the President. 

The resolution, however, failed to explain why both houses of Congress were withdrawing the bills that provide for the Magna Carta for Seafarers in the first place.

It took prodding from Cagayan de Oro 2nd District Representative Rufus Rodriguez before Iloilo 1st District Representative Janette Loreto Garin bared that the bicameral committee report submitted featured a provision that could lead to problems on jurisdiction.

“I think we have to be clear on why there is [a bill],” Rodriguez said. “I was informed that this particular enrolled bill, contrary to our bill in the House, would transfer jurisdiction on disputes on seafarers from the DOLE (Department of Labor and Employment) to the International Labor Organization…a diminution of our rights to be able to decide on cases.”

Lawmakers did not elaborate on how a provision viewed as a “diminution of sovereignty” made it past the bicameral committee. Garin said lawmakers would again sit down to correct the error in the bill. – with Kaycee Valmonte/Rappler.com