Marcos urged to sign the new Magna Carta for Seafarers bill

Some of the country’s 700,000 seafarers salute after Mass for National Seafarers’ Day. —FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines — The Federation of Labor Unions and advocates have urged President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. to sign the new Magna Carta for Seafarers bill, pending before Congress for about a decade.

Philippine Trade and General Workers Organization (PTGWO), the country’s biggest federation of labor unions and organizations, said it is now time to sign the new bill, now without the provisions they deem detrimental for seafarers.

“What they now passed in Congress is truly a Magna Carta of Seafarers,” the PTGWO said in a statement on Monday.

READ: Lawmakers urged to push for right measures for seafarers

The revised bill has now removed the provision that disallowed the immediate execution or payment to the complainant seafarers of awards—mostly disability benefits—they received from final judgments of the National Labor Relations Commission and the Voluntary Arbitrator under the National Conciliation and Mediation Board.

“When the first enrolled bill of the Magna Carta of Seafarers was not signed by the President, there were several reasons cited. But now it appears that there is just a solitary reason. This is the bond requirement provision,” the PTGWO said.

The PTGWO also hailed the upper and lower chamber’s move to remove this bond requirement provision finally.

“They recognized that the bond requirement provision is not only not germane to the Magna Carta but is actually detrimental to the welfare of our seafarers,” the PTGWO said.

“Now, each day that the Magna Carta is not passed is a day that the working and living conditions of seafarers, the terms and conditions of their employment, as well the social and welfare services for them and their families, are compromised. We are one with them in imploring our Honorable President Bong Bong Marcos to immediately sign it into law,” it further said.

Marcos certified the Magna Carta of Filipino Seafarers as urgent in September 2023, but its signing was postponed on Feb. 26, and then later the same day came a House of Representatives resolution recalling the bill.