President Benigno C. Aquino III should make himself busy resolving seafarers’ issues. This was the statement of the International Seafarers’ Action Center (ISAC) as work safety, salaries and wages, and piracy remain top concerns among the seafaring community.

Atty. Joseph T. Entero, ISAC vice president and secretary general in a statement said, the piracy cannot be resolved by military might alone.

“Pure military solution, we believe, might not totally work. All we need is to craft a solution that will solve the piracy problems on its roots,” the maritime labor lawyer said.

He also said that the Philippines should be the one leading the international community in creating a peaceful and long-lasting solution on the piracy problem, since 25 percent of the 1.5 million seafarers crewing different kinds of fleets in the world are Filipinos.

He also said that while piracy barely hits the headlines today, the spate of kidnappings and hijacking continue in one of the world’s most important waterways.

At the height of pirates’ attack in 2008, it is said that more than 100 Filipino crews were held hostage by the Somali fishermen turned pirates.

Entero said, they have handled some cases involving crews who had been held hostage by Somali pirates.

“We have handled some cases of seafarers that are survivors of kidnappings. Some of them are temporarily had been out of their minds because of the hardships and cruelty that they have endured while in the hands of Somali pirates,” he said.

On the other hand, the NGO also urged the Aquino government to focus in making the working conditions of seafarers better, by ratifying the six-year old Maritime Labor Convention of 2006.

“The US$4 billion worth of dollar remittances of our 400,000 seafarers out there are fruits, literally of their sweat and blood. Perhaps, our President didn’t know that our seafarers need to endure lots of hardships, abuses, and pains to make our national economy afloat,” the maritime labor lawyer said.

The lawyer also revealed that the ISAC Legal and Claims deparment are handling hundreds of labor cases, mostly related to sickness benefits, illegal dismissal, unpaid salaries, and other forms of unfair labor practices.

“The President must know that most of our kababayans are crewing ships that are under flags-of-convenience (FOCs) where the salaries are relatively lower, were the right to union and collective bargaining are rampantly abuse, and have issues on safety and welfare of the crew,” he said.

Moreover, if the MLC 2006 would be ratified, the use of FOC would dramatically decrease and the salary and the working conditions of our seafarers would greatly improve, says Entero.

“It has been eight months since the Labor Department said that the Palace is considering the ratification of the MLC as its recognition to the contribution of our seafarers to the Philippine economy; however, there is no news about it. But still, we are hoping that Malacañang would still consider ratifying and adopting the MLC 2006 before the year ends,” Entero ended.