The world’s ships need more officers

PEOPLE who know the industry appreciate the fact that Filipinos make up about 1/3 of all the merchant marine sailors in the world. That’s something we can all be proud of. But we could in fact be prouder still—and benefit from the added remittances—if we also supplied a larger part of the world shipping industry’s roster of officers.

There’s a shortage of merchant marine officers. This shortage is affecting global shipping. And if there were just more qualified Filipino officers they would be hired. So one of the things the government should do is support Filipinos in earning merchant marine officer-class degrees.