The Philippines is the leading supplier of maritime power. About 30% of the worlds’ seafarers are Filipinos. They have been very in-demand all over the world. In fact, Filipino seafarers are the world’s most sought seafarers to meet the shipping industry’s growing need for maritime officers.

But according to labor undersecretary Danilo Cruz, the Philippines can’t fill the need of other country’s demand for seafarers because most Filipino seafarers have only taken up short courses.

“Despite the large number of maritime schools, most of their graduates don’t finish engineering courses. After two years of studies, they get an associate degree and immediately take on jobs (onboard) ships,” he said.

According to the statistics quoted by the National Maritime Polytechnic (NMP), the only government-owned training center, from the International Shipping Federation that there was a shortage of about 10,000 maritime officers last year while ratings or non-officers was oversupply with around 135,000.

It is expected that the shortage for maritime workers will rise to 27,000 while the oversupply of non-officers to 167,000 by year 2015.

The undersecretary said that while most of European and Japanese maritime officers are retiring and their shipping industries is looking to the Philippines to supply their needs but, the country cannot really supply the demand for maritime officers since most of our seafarers are ratings because most Filipino seafarers have only taken up short courses.

“Despite the large number of maritime schools, most of their graduates don’t finish engineering courses. After two years of studies, they get an associate degree and immediately take on jobs ships,” he said.

He also said that the demand for Filipino seafarers will continue to increase. Cruz cited statistics from the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) showing that the number of sea-based workers deployed this year increase with 12% compared to last year’s deployment. Sea-based workers deployed from January 1 to September 10 last year were 169,237 and on the same period this year, there are 189,574 seafarers sent to work abroad.