Labor Secretary Francis Tolentino has created the first dedicated Maritime Labor Affairs Office within the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE), covering the welfare, working conditions, and legal rights of Filipino seafarers and fisherfolk who were previously without a specialized office to handle their concerns.
Tolentino made the disclosure in an interview on DZRH News program The Situation Report on Thursday, September 10, describing the creation of the office as one of his first reforms upon taking over as DOLE secretary less than three months ago.
The Labor chief said the new office addresses a longstanding gap: Filipino seafarers transition between the jurisdiction of the DMW when they are deployed abroad and back to DOLE when they return, but neither agency had a dedicated unit focused specifically on maritime labor conditions and welfare.
“Ang alam ng iba pag maritime, nasa laot lang. Pero malapit dito sa inyong studio, pag nakikita mo sa Luneta, ang daming nakapila diyan, mga seaman na kumukuha ng Seaman’s book. Iyan ay nasa pudar pa ng Department of Labor,” Tolentino said.
Tolentino said the office will also cover fisherfolk, who are classified as agricultural workers under Philippine labor law and whose working conditions at sea are governed by International Labor Organization (ILO) conventions the Philippines has signed.
The ILO commitments include standards on sleeping quarters, safety equipment, navigational gear for vessels operating beyond territorial waters, and access to communication devices that can reach the Coast Guard or the Philippine Navy in emergencies.
Tolentino also revealed that DOLE has an existing Memorandum of Agreement with the Philippine Coast Guard covering maritime worker welfare, which he said the new office will now actively operationalize.
He said he has not ruled out the possibility of DOLE eventually having its own vessel for maritime labor inspection: “Lumalaro [pa ito] sa isip natin.”
