Bills requiring PMMA to have a cadet from each Congressional district get House panel OK

MANILA, Philippines — Proposals that seek to require the Philippine Merchant Marine Academy (PMMA) to get one cadet from each Congressional district in the country have been approved at the committee level of the House of Representatives.

During the hearing on Monday, the House Committee on higher and technical education approved motions to consolidate House Bills No. 2458 and 4835 from Cagayan de Oro 2nd District Rep. Rufus Rodriguez and Pangasinan 6th District Rep. Marlyn Primicias-Agabas, respectively, subject to style brought by possible amendments.

Both bills want the PMMA to pick at least one cadet from each of the 253 legislative districts to ensure that the composition of PMMA students will be balanced, giving far-flung regions the chance to be well-represented in government programs.

But when committee chairperson and Baguio Rep. Mark Go asked PMMA superintendent Commo. Joel Abutal whether the state-run school can accommodate an increase in students, the latter admitted that the school needs to cut their average nationwide recruitment to implement the proposal.

Abutal said that from an average of 250 recruits per year nationwide, they would have to trim it down to just 100.

“Now this bill, on top of this 250, we’ll have one from each Congressional district, so if there are 253 districts, we will have (an) additional 250 plus your 250, you will have a total number of students of about more than 500,” Go said.

“We would like to have it on a staggered basis by providing another 100 on top of another 253 Congressional districts […] the current intake of PMMA which is… it is not equitable to (accommodate students) across the country, we would like to have an equitable recruitment of 253 plus another 100 for the national selection,” Abutal answered.

As of now, Abutal said the capacity of the PMMA is 750 students.The reduction in the national recruitments would allow the PMMA to ask for a smaller budget increment despite the bill’s goal to have one cadet per Congressional district.

However, Abutal admitted that having 353 new recruits — 100 on the national recruitment and 253 from the Congressional districts — would mean that the PMMA would be short on its facilities.

“We will be lacking facilities in terms of barracks and classrooms […] the cadets are staying in the quarters, so ‘pag magdadagdag tayo, liliit ‘yong ating barracks,” Abutal told Go.

The PMMA official however said the school supports the bill because they now have a higher demand for cadets despite the country’s failure to pass the European Maritime Safety Agency (Emsa) evaluation.

“The reason why we fully support the program is because we have at the moment an increased number of requirements of cadets and Filipino officers — although we have challenges from Emsa and so on, we don’t feel the challenge from PMMA,” Abutal noted.

“We in fact have an increased number of requirements from our partners, (it) rose from 43 to 55 now, shipping company partners.And even the passenger vessel, carnival cruise joined in getting cadets from us. That’s why we would like to support this bill but supporting it needs also support from the government,” he added.

/MUF