If the maritime industry has Cagayan de Oro Rep. Rufus Rodriguez, who is proving to be its staunch ally in Congress, then we have Department of Migrant Workers Secretary Susan “Toots” Ople as a strong ally of the manning sector in the Executive branch.
Even before her appointment by President Marcos to head the new department, Secretary Ople, or simply Toots to friends among civil society groups, had already immersed herself in the fight to promote the rights and welfare of overseas Filipino workers.
It can be recalled that it was her father, the late Labor Secretary Blas Ople, who started this phenomenon of organized labor migration — the deployment overseas of Filipino land-based contract workers in the 1970s — to ease the mounting unemployment problems in the country and to respond to the growing demand for skilled workers abroad.
Now Secretary Toots is carrying on her father’s legacy.
Since we are involved both in the deployment of seafarers and in the recruitment of land-based contract workers, we had already met and collaborated with the Secretary in the past, mainly in promoting the empowerment of OFWs and the reintegration program for both sea-based and land-based workers. We are one among the many who can attest to her genuine commitment to advancing the welfare of OFWs.
Last 26 January, we were privileged to have Secretary Toots as our guest of honor and speaker at the FAME New Year Get-Together and General Membership Meeting at New Coast Hotel where over 80 of our 117 member-manning agencies were in attendance.
The Filipino Association for Mariners’ Employment or FAME is the country’s first manning group established to protect Filipino seafarers and promote their employment overseas. Formed in March 1974, FAME now accounts for about 75 percent of the total deployment of sea-based workers annually.
As the current FAME president, we were elated to hear directly from the head of the DMW, assuring us that we in the manning sector have a reliable representative in the Cabinet who can bring our concerns directly to the President.
At the FAME meeting, Secretary Toots spoke freely of her thoughts on the current challenges confronting the nation’s seafaring sector that brings in at least $6.5 billion in remittances, even at the height of the pandemic.
While she explicitly declared that we in the crewing community have her as our strong ally in the Cabinet, she is only one voice. Hence, she urged the manning sector to do its share in the campaign to protect seafarers’ jobs and to address various issues in the seafaring profession.
She advised FAME members to “engage” with government officials in the different agencies dealing with the maritime industry to “educate” them, especially policymakers, on the issues of our sector.
Particularly on “ambulance chasing” that discourages some principals from further employing Filipino seafarers, Secretary Toots mentioned the need for our community to reach out to the Labor Department and its attached agencies, the National Commission and Mediation Board and the National Labor Relations Commission, among other agencies, to help address this concern that exploits vulnerable seafarers.
In fact, she made a bright proposal to make the coming FAME’s 49th Anniversary celebration this March more meaningful by staging a dialogue with the DMW, DoLE, NCMB, NLRC, and the seafarers represented by AMOSUP on ambulance chasing.
“Let’s make that happen,” she urged.
About the European Maritime Safety Agency issue, it was heartwarming to hear from the Secretary that the Chief Executive is taking steps to make sure that the European Commission will not “decertify” our Filipino officers.
The recent creation of an international advisory body is only one of these steps, but she reiterated that the manning sector has its role to play.
To quote her, Secretary Toots said: “We need to show the world that we are working together towards a very concise, clear roadmap for the future. If there’s a message that I can leave you on this occasion it is this: This is an administration that is willing and very much happy to engage with you. So don’t lose that opportunity.”