This is the story of 31-year old seafarer Gerald Gonzales from Iloilo City. He holds the record for being the longest held Filipino hostage in Somalia. Gerald boarded MV Iceberg 1, a cargo ship, way back in 2009 for a 9-month stint as an oiler (all-around shipmate) with a salary of $350. His contract was to expire on April 12, 2010. But Gerald’s ship was hijacked by Somali pirates on March 29, 2010.
It was indeed a milestone when Philippines became the 30th member-state of the International Labor Organization (ILO) to ratify the Maritime Labor Convention (MLC of 2006).
President Aquino finally designated a single maritime administration. The President signed on April 30, Executive Order No. 75 designating the Department of Transportation and Communications, through the Maritime Industry Authority (Marina), as the single agency responsible for the implementation of the 1978 International Convention on Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping (STCW) for seafarers.
Media coverage of the Costa Concordia tragedy has been focused mainly on the captain accused of having a romantic dinner as his ship was sinking and then abandoning his crew and passengers to save himself.
Media coverage of the Costa Concordia tragedy has been focused mainly on the clueless captain accused of having a romantic dinner as his ship was sinking and then abandoning his crew and passengers to save himself.
A cargo ship brushed against two anchored vessels during severe weather off the coast of Istanbul on Friday and tilted to one side, taking on water for hours before authorities were forced to pull it ashore using a tug boat.
Relatives of those still missing from a stricken Italian cruise ship laid flowers on the sea by the wreck on Friday, a week after the tragedy in which up to 32 people are feared dead.
Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert Del Rosario has commended the Filipino crewmembers of doomed Italian cruise ship Costa Concordia for their “competence, professionalism and humanity, even under extreme pressure.”
Seafaring tradition holds that the captain should be last to leave a sinking ship. But is it realistic to expect skippers to suppress their survival instinct amid the horror of a maritime disaster? To ask them to stare down death from the bridge, as the lights go out and the water rises, until everyone else has made it to safety?
Officers of a ship that ploughed into a New Zealand reef causing the country’s worst maritime pollution disaster faced fresh charges on Wednesday for altering documents after the grounding.
The Department of Foreign Affairs on Tuesday confirmed the release of 15 Filipino crew members on board the cargo ship MV Rosalia D’Amatao, hijacked by Somali pirates on April 21 in the Indian Ocean.
A piracy watchdog said sailors and an oil tanker seized by pirates off Nigeria’s oil-rich southern delta have been released.
