About 3,000 applicants trooped to the Department of Migrant Workers’ (DMW) first seafarers job fair held at its main office in Mandaluyong on Wednesday. A total of 1,500 posts were offered during the event held from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. in coordination with the Department of Labor and Employment. In a Laging Handa public briefing, DMW Undersecretary Hans Leo Cacdac said 27 manning agencies participated during the job fair. Cacdac said DMW Secretary Susan Ople made the directive to hold a special job fair, particularly for those who wanted to work in the seafaring industry. He said the activity gave the aspirant seafarers an easier way to find legitimate manning agencies. ‘Alam ninyo ay tanyag tayo sa buong daigdig bilang tinatawag na (Our country is known globally as) a country with a labor-sending responsibility, labor supplying responsibility under the Maritime Labor Convention,’ he said. DMW data shows that the country has deployed a total of 482,393 seafarers in 2018; 507,730 in 2019; 217,223 in 2020 at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic; 345,517 in 2021; and 385,239 in 2022. Cacdac said the DMW is hoping the country would be able to get back in terms of the number of deployed seafarers abroad. ‘Nakikita natin na in so far as seafarers are concerned, of course gawa din ito ng pagnonormalisa na ng kalakalan, paglalayag ng mga trading vessel, container ships, cruise lines/cruise ships worldwide so nakikita na natin ang pagnormalisa ng shipping sector including the cruise ship sector all around the world. At bahagi niyan iyong panunumbalik sa trabaho ng mga dekalidad nating mga marino (We can see that in so far as the seafarers are concerned, and as the economy and trading normalizes, and so are the trading vessels, container ships, cruise lines, cruise ships worldwide, we see the shipping sector also normalize around the world. It also signals the return to the work of our qualified seafarers),’ he said. Cacdac reminded aspiring seafarers to always make sure that they were applying through legitimate recruitment agencies, and not entertain recruiters who want to interview the applicants outside their own office. He said the list of accredited and licensed manning agencies can be found on the DMW website dmw.gov.ph. ‘Maraming mga simpleng indikasyon kung ang isang agency ay legal: Una, may opisina kung saan may signage, nandoon iyong kanilang DMW license number (There are many indications that an agency is legal, first, they should have an office with a signage and with their DMW license number indicated),’ he said.
Source: Philippines News Agency