MANILA, April 2 (Reuters) - Philippine President
Ferdinand Marcos Jr on Sunday welcomed the European Commission's
(EC) decision to continue recognising certificates issued by his
country for Filipino seafarers, saying it averted job losses for
roughly 50,000 sailors.
The EC had warned in 2021 it would withdraw its recognition
of Filipino seafarers' certificates unless serious measures were
taken, including compliance with the International Convention on
Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping for
seafarers.
The Southeast Asian country, among the world's biggest
suppliers of maritime labour, has since made serious efforts to
comply with the requirements, particularly in key areas like the
monitoring, supervision and evaluation of training and
assessment, the EC announced on Friday.
Marcos had met with EC President Ursula von der Leyen in
December, when he attended the ASEAN-EU summit in Brussels, to
discuss the 15-year-old issue involving Filipino seafarers.
In a statement, he said his administration will do
everything to address all other issues faced by the local
maritime industry so that the Philippines can produce more
world-class seafarers.
The EC said it intends to provide the Philippines with
technical assistance to further improve its education, training
and certification system for seafarers.
The seafarers are among millions of overseas Filipinos
sending home more than $2.5 billion of their earnings each
month, boosting consumer spending that drives growth of the
domestic economy.
(Reporting by Enrico Dela Cruz; Editing by Christopher Cushing)
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