‘Don’t sign Magna Carta for Seafarer’s Bill’

A group advocating for Filipino seafarers’ rights has appealed to President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. not to sign the recently ratified Magna Carta for Seafarer’s Bill which reinstates a provision that requires seamen to put up a bond for awards of disability benefits.

In a statement, the Seafarer’s Rights Philippines said the group was dismayed over the move of Congress to approve the bond requirement under Section 59 of the new version of the bill.

“President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. did not sign the old version of the bill because it was violative of the equal protection rule under the Constitution. It makes seafarers as the only group of workers, local or OFWs, who would not receive their awards immediately,” Seafarer’s Rights Philippines said. 

“The awards won by seafarers would be tied up with appeals to the Court of Appeals and the Supreme Court, which usually lasts for years or even a decade. It does not make sense for the President to sign this version, when nothing was really done to make the bond provision palatable,” it added.

Section 59 of the new version of the bill disallows the immediate execution or payment to the complainant-seafarers of awards they received from final judgments of the National Labor Relation Commission (NLRC) and the Voluntary Arbitrator under the National Conciliation and Mediation Board (NCMB-DOLE). 

These are mostly awards for disability benefits the seafarers suffered in the line of duty, and which would render them permanently or temporarily incapacitated to continue working. 

Under the new version of the Magna Carta for Seafarer’s bill, the seafarer would have to put up a bond, in an amount equivalent to the award, to be able to receive his or her award.

The group cautioned President Ferdinand Marcos Jr not to sign the measure as it  would erase the legacy of his father who signed the law protecting Filipino seafarers under the 1974 Labor Code.

“The late President Marcos, Sr., as early as the 70’s already recognized the need to regulate the overseas employment of Filipino workers. This is why one of the policy objectives of the Labor Code, when it was enacted in 1974, is to “protect every citizen desiring to work locally or overseas by securing for him the best possible terms and conditions of employment,” the group said.