In a bid to keep the country from losing European Union accreditation of Filipino seamen, two maritime education groups have rushed to the side of the Commission on Higher Education (CHED), which is engaged in a court battle with Philippine Maritime Institute (PMI).
The Philippine Association of Maritime Training Centers Inc. (PAMTCI) and the Philippine Association of Maritime Institutions (PAMI) expressed in a manifesto their support to the CHED moves to close down maritime schools with deficient programs. PMI is one of these schools.
In a bid to keep the country from losing European Union accreditation of Filipino seamen, two maritime education groups have rushed to the side of the Commission on Higher Education (CHED), which is engaged in a court battle with Philippine Maritime Institute (PMI).
The Philippine Association of Maritime Training Centers Inc. (PAMTCI) and the Philippine Association of Maritime Institutions (PAMI) expressed in a manifesto their support to the CHED moves to close down maritime schools with deficient programs. PMI is one of these schools.
They said Filipino seafarers remitted $4.34 billion in 2011 and urge the government and private sector to keep the country’s niche as the “world’s number one seafaring nation”.
“Our seafarers sent more money to their families during the year that land-based workers abroad,” the PAMTCI and PAMI said.
European inspectors here
An inspection team of the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA) is in the country to check on the status of actions taken to address deficiencies it found in April 2010.
The CHED had said in a joint statement with the Maritime Training Council of the Department of Labor and Employment that “PMI had been operating with several gross deficiencies, particularly on program administration, faculty, laboratory equipment, library, and research and development, as found likewise by the EMSA…”
“PMI had not been able to correct these despite several opportunities given to it from SY 2006 to 2007 even until the second semester of SY 2010–2011,” the joint statement also said.
PMI chose to take the CHED to court but the judges of two courts denied the PMI’s petition for a temporary restraining order (TRO) against the CHED closure order.
However, PMI persisted in its resistance to the CHED order and the case got raffled to a third judge.
According to CHED and DOLE, Judge Rosa Samson of RTC QC Branch 105 issued on February 1 a “writ of preliminary injunction” enjoining the CHED from further implementing the closure orders on PMI’s BSMT and BSMarE programs until further orders of the court.
But PMI Colleges said the TRO was handed down on January 26 and it ordered the CHED to allow PMI Colleges to continue offering its BSMT and BSMarE programs.
CHED and DOLE lamented Judge Samson’s TRO and its possible consequences.
“The failure of the Philippines to rectify the deficiencies noted by the EMSA will trigger the European Commission proceedings on the withdrawal of European Union’s (EU) recognition of certificates issued by the Philippine government to Filipino seafarers, which may result to non-hiring of such seafarers on board EU member flagged vessels, as well as pre-termination of contracts of those on board,” the joint statement said.
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