According to the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE), the Philippines has further firmed up its position as the number one global supplier of maritime workers.

The deployment of Filipino seafarers overseas rose by +8,867 to 113,529 from January 1 to June 13, 2005 compared to 104,662 in the same period last year, maintaining its strong, stable share of the global employment market together with the land-based overseas Filipino workers (OFWs).

Their inward dollar remittances to the Philippines also grew by almost 17 percent reaching US$541.3 million from January to April 2005, compared to $462.9 million in the same period last year, a report reaching Labor and Employment Secretary Patricia A. Sto. Tomas indicated.

Sto. Tomas said some 468,602 land- and sea-based OFWs were deployed from January 1 to June 13, 2005, or an increase of 19,071 from 449,531 in 2004. "Right now, the total OFW deployment is only 31,398 below the one half million mark which we expect to reach shortly," she said.

At the same time, she cited the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas' report that the total remittances of both land- and sea-based OFWs posted another double-digit growth of 17.22 percent to US$3.072 billion (around P170.9 billion) from January to April this year, compared to $2.621 billion in the same period in 2004.

"Based on these facts, our goal to deploy a million OFWs in 2005, together with our expectation that OFW remittances shall approach the US$10 billion this year, are clearly on track," the labor chief said.

She said the role of the overseas Filipino seafarers in global maritime manning and shipping has definitely been complemented by the recent report of the London-based International Maritime Organization (IMO) on the Philippines' continuous compliance with the 1978 Convention on the Standards of Training, Certification, and Watchkeeping (STCW), as amended in 1995.

At its 80th session in London on May 20-22, 2005, the IMO's Maritime Safety Committee confirmed that the Philippines had communicated the required information on the independent evaluation of its Quality Standard System (QSS), and thus found the country to be consistently implementing the 1978 STCW Convention, as amended.

"The IMO's confirmation of the Philippines' STCW compliance efforts had again assured our inclusion in the IMO White List of countries with competent seafarers, which serves as the benchmark and reference of the global shipping industry in the recruitment of quality seafarers," Sto. Tomas said.

She also said that notwithstanding the presence of other seafarers including the Chinese and the Pakistanis, the Philippines continues to maintain its edge, thus singularly accounting for some 20 to 25 percent of the world's seafarers actively and productively manning global shipping.

For more DOLE (Dept. of Labor and Employment) news, go to www.DOLE.gov.ph