DAVAO CITY – An organization of Filipino seafarers urged the Senate and House to investigate the alleged anomalies of the licensure examination conducted by the Maritime Industry Authority (Marina).
President of the United Filipino Seafarers (UFS), Nelson Ramirez in a statement said, both chambers of congress should look into the situation why so many examinees got 100% in the MARINA’s written licensure examination.
Ramirez said that based on the complaints of the seafarers that they received, many review centers are calling manning agencies to market their review center and give the endorser a rebate of Php 5,000 pesos per examinee.
“Review centers are giving a guarantee of 100% passing rate. Review center is a brisk business at the moment like a sari-sari store business that sprout like mushrooms,” Ramirez said.
Ramirez said some review centers are said to persuade their clients that their review questions are only few hundreds “but could guarantee a 100 percent passing mark.”
“The reviews fee range from 15 thousand to 30 thousand pesos. What is questionable is the very high passing percentage that never happen in the recent history of marine examination in the Professional Regulation Commission,” Ramirez said.
“If this practice will continue, foreign ship owners might stop hiring Filipino officers because they are no longer assured of their competence. That is why we are asking the House of Representatives and the Senate to conduct investigations on this matter,” Ramirez said.
UFS is a 45,000-strong members organization.
