Former Maritime Industry Authority (MARINA) Administrator Vice Admiral Robert Empedrad has reiterated that there is no need to revive the Management Level Course (MLC) because it is already in the country’s maritime education curriculum.

Empedrad was reacting to his successor, MARINA Administrator Atty. Hernani Fabia, who announced during the recent Joint Maritime Committee meeting that he is planning to revive the MLC so that the country will not be delisted from the White List of the International Maritime Organization (IMO).

To support his statement, Empedrad said, during his term, MARINA and CHED have issued Joint CHED-MARINA Advisory 01 series of 2020 and Joint CHED-MARINA Memorandum Circular 01 series of 2022, reiterating the continued implementation of the existing curriculum under CMO 67 series of 2017 and CMO 14 series of 2018.

The curriculum, he said, contains management-level modules. And if they are still lacking in it because of the new industry requirements for marine officers, then that is the only time they should get it from the training centers.

At the Joint Maritime Committee meeting, MARINA Director II for Planning and Policy Service, Luisito delos Santos, also reported the summary of Independent Evaluation Findings, which included: 13 observations and 11 non-conformities on MARINA; and 4 observations on the Commission on Higher Education (CHED).

There were also observations and non-conformities discovered in the 7 inspected maritime education and training institutions, or METIs. 

However, Empedrad, in a phone call, told Marino World that it is not true that the Philippines will be delisted from the IMO Whitelist because of the alleged non-compliance with the findings of the Independent Evaluators that there is no evidence of formal education and training for management level officers.

He reiterated that the Independent Evaluators are being paid for their services to only look into our process but not interfere with our policies, such as whether to implement the MLC in maritime higher education institutions or in the training centers.

Empedrad said, before he was relieved from the post, he was already contemplating canceling the service of the Independent Evaluators because of the conflict of interest.
 

He questioned the integrity of one of the evaluators who allegedly talked to the training centers during the conduct of the independent evaluation and later on questioned the MLC implementation instead of recommending how MARINA could improve the system.

Independent Evaluators, Prof. Milhar Fuazudeen and Dr. Malek Pourzanjani were welcomed by the MARINA in an Opening Meeting for the Conduct of Independent Evaluation of the Philippines' Quality Standard System pursuant to Regulation I/8 of the STCW Convention, 1978, as Amended last March 30, 2022.

The independent evaluation is conducted in preparation for the IMO Member State Audit Scheme (IMSAS), wherein the Philippines is scheduled for a mandatory audit in October 2023.

Lead Evaluator, Fuazudeen, during its initial meeting with MARINA, emphasized that "the whole purpose of the undertaking is not to find fault or put blame but to evaluate and see how well the quality standard system of the Philippines is improving in relation to the implementation of the STCW Convention.

As this evaluation is evidence-based, he pointed out the need to highlight things that are not going well in order to enhance the system, to make sure that it stays compliant, and that the compliance is sustained."

(Eva Tan)