Filipino seafarers deserve support, dignity, and respect

BY MANILA BULLETIN

Jan 10, 2025 07:10 AM 

The signing of the Implementing Rules and Regulations (IRR) of the Magna Carta for Filipino Seafarers is a historic moment not only for the maritime industry but also for the countless Filipino families whose lives depend on their seafaring loved ones. With the landmark legislation now in effect, Filipino seafarers — whose courage, skill, and sacrifice are the backbone of global trade — finally have a legal framework to ensure their welfare and protection.

In the heart of every ship that sails across international waters, a Filipino seafarer is at the helm. According to the International Maritime Organization, Filipino seafarers make up a staggering 25 percent of the world’s maritime workforce. Every day, nearly 400,000 Filipino men and women work aboard commercial vessels, oil tankers, cargo ships, and cruise liners, ensuring that goods move across oceans and that vital supplies reach ports. Their work directly contributes billions to the Philippine economy, as remittances from seafarers are a major lifeline for millions of families.

The financial stability they provide has empowered countless Filipino families to break free from the cycle of poverty, enabling children to receive education and parents to build homes and businesses. Filipino seafarers are the unsung heroes whose sacrifice helps fuel the country’s economy and provides hope for future generations. Yet, despite their critical role, their lives at sea have often been fraught with risks and neglect — an injustice the Magna Carta for Filipino Seafarers seeks to rectify.

While Filipino seafarers are the embodiment of resilience, they have to go through a perilous journey at sea. Every day, they face the unpredictable challenges of the open ocean — violent storms, treacherous waters, and the constant threat of piracy. But beyond the physical dangers, they battle emotional and psychological tolls that most of us will never fully understand.

The isolation that comes with being away from loved ones for months, the strain on marriages, and the mental health challenges due to extended periods at sea are real, often invisible struggles. On top of that, the risk of injury, illness, or even death is an ever-present reality, with Filipino seafarers often exposed to hazardous working conditions. Accidents at sea, exposure to toxic substances, and the dangers of navigating war zones or pirate-infested waters are just a few of the harsh risks they face.

Many seafarers return home physically and mentally scarred, only to find that the support they need is often inadequate. Medical bills, rehabilitation, and post-trauma care are often out of reach for many families. These are the risks seafarers willingly shoulder for the sake of their families and for the good of the nation. Therefore, it is only fitting that the government extend a lifeline to them. 

This is why the Magna Carta is a long-overdue recognition of the sacrifices seafarers make. The law ensures that seafarers will have access to fair compensation, medical care, and rehabilitation. It also guarantees better working conditions and provides for the creation of mechanisms to support their families during the periods when they are away. It also offers a legal structure for addressing issues such as harassment, abuse, and exploitation that some seafarers face in foreign waters. It calls for the establishment of a comprehensive insurance and benefits system, a protection program against unjust dismissal, and provisions for returning seafarers who may suffer from the long-term effects of their work.

But beyond the tangible benefits, the Magna Carta sends a message to Filipino seafarers that they are valued, they are protected, and they deserve the same rights and dignity as workers in any other field.

With the Magna Carta for Filipino Seafarers, the government has taken a significant step toward recognizing these sacrifices and providing a measure of justice for those who brave the seas for the benefit of their families and their country. But this is just the beginning. It is now time to ensure that the seafarers who have given so much to the nation receive the support, dignity, and respect they deserve.

The dignity of our human body

By Fr. Roy Cimagala*

ONCE again, we celebrate this very wonderful Solemnity of the Assumption of our Lady to heaven (August 15), reminding us that like her, we too are meant to be both body and soul in our definitive state of life, hopefully in heaven, at the end of time.

Let’s remember that man is always a unity of body and soul. He is not just pure body nor pure spiritual soul. And as our Catechism teaches us, the body, properly animated by the spiritual soul, shares in the dignity of the “image of God.” (cfr. CCC 364)

This is how the Catechism explains it: “The human body shares in the dignity of “the image of God”: it is a human body precisely because it is animated by a spiritual soul, and it is the whole human person that is intended to become in the body of Christ, a temple of the Spirit. Man, though made of body and soul, is a unity.”

The Catechism further teaches that, “Through his very bodily condition he (man) sums up in himself the elements of the material world…He is obliged to regard his body as good and to hold it in honor since God has created it and will raise it up on the last day.” (CCC 362 ff.)

Our attitude toward the body and the material world, I am afraid, has suffered a dangerous mutation, a radical reversal of God’s designs for them. We seem to be falling into two extremes. 

One is to consider the body as completely evil, as when the distinction between the body and the soul becomes exaggerated that they by nature become hostile to each other. This mindset is prevalent among those who may be regarded as ‘too spiritual’ in their life.

The other extreme, the more common one, is to consider the body as completely good, with no more need for spiritual animation and direction. This is the case of a variety of people—the hedonists, the naturalists, etc.

We need to understand that our body is organically linked to our spiritual and the supernatural character of our life. While distinct, it cannot be separated from our integral human nature and condition, from our beginning and end, and from the plan and purpose God our Father and Creator has for us.

Given the dignity of our human body, we have to make sure that our piety and our devotion to God and everything related to him has to involve both the body and soul. It has to involve our whole person. It just cannot be purely spiritual or purely material. It just cannot be only a matter of knowing the doctrine, quite cerebral in approach, without some external manifestations, or of practicing all sorts of devotional exercises, without knowing the doctrine of faith.

If piety has to be authentic and consistent in all circumstances, then it has to be lived both in our spiritual soul whose main faculties are our intellect and will, and in our material body whose link to our soul, the principle of life, are the emotions and passions, the memory and the imagination, our temperament and psychological state, etc.

When piety is limited to one or the other essential element of our being, to either our spiritual soul or the material body, then it cannot be consistent. It cannot hold out against that anomaly for long. It sooner or later will fall into the tricks of hypocrisy and self-deception.

* Chaplain Center for Industrial Technology and Enterprise (CITE), Talamban, Cebu City

Email: roycimagala@gmail.com

That tells me all…

TUE, AUGUST 9, 2016 BY THE MINDANAO DAILY MIRROR LEAVE A COMMENT

IN MY OPINIONKlaus Doring

… I need to know! Know-it-all-better’s, who prefer an oppressing or suppressing crab mentality should be really out of place. They poison us and our dignity and our feelings of our own worth. Unfortunately, we can find these people at any corner.

I stayed in many places worldwide – places with people belonging to different kinds of religion. I really don’t care which belief people are in. The most important, they believe in God and they live a Christian life. I am always very happy when I find churches or prayer places – always open and filled up with praying people.

I am always very happy, when I meet hopeful and promising Christians: priests, pastors, lay people, friends, family members, who know how to share and inspire, and also know how to be patient while starting with a -maybe – “new beginning”.

I am also very happy, because I still observe infinite and endless good things every day coming into my life. Slowly but surely, I start  to pay attention to such things. I observe several people, who doesn’t! I really try to do preliminary exercises for instance, for amazing things or just for a simple gratitude. With these attitudes I’ll be winning each battle thousand times against those people who live in believing that God’s creation goes to the dogs and kicks the bucket.

I am really happy, if I meet people who under-stand the real meaning of responsibility. Responsibility to a child, to the family, to a company and its employees, to a public service, an association or a registered society, or anything that supports, sponsors and promotes my surroundings without being egoistic, indifferent or listless. “I don’t give a damn!”

I am always happy to notice people around me, who means and act “YES” if they say “YES”!

I am always hap-py to notice something that is taken for granted: parents have time for their children and patience with the youth (really a difficult task sometimes!); some-one who takes time to visit a sick neighbor or friend; someone who asks the address of a possible lonely fellow…

Every  period is in God’s hands. Let’s fulfill these periods and let’s allow also our loved ones at our side to live the same way. Know-it-all-better’s, who prefer an oppressing or suppressing crab mentality should be really out of place. Unfortunately we can find such people at any corner. And, we must know how to deal with them.

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Email: doringklaus@ gmail.com or follow me in Facebook or Twitter or visit www.germanexpatinthe philippines.blogspot.com or www.klausdoringdsclassicalmusic.blogspot.com .