Overseas Filipino workers (OFW) rule the roost, so to speak, aboard the cruise ship Brilliance of the Seas because of their sheer number and also because of their skills, talent, dependability and graciousness. Filipinos comprise about 60 percent of the 853-strong crew that is composed of 51 nationalities.

“Here I earn the combined salaries of four teachers and three security guards in the Philippines,” reveals Jerry Dioneo, 36, who works in the dining section. Dioneo who hails from Silay City in Negros Occidental has been on the ship for about three years and is on his fourth contract. Only the Filipino nationals, Dioneo adds, are compelled to allot and remit 20 percent of their earnings to their folks back home. This is stipulated in their contracts.

And what is work like on cruise days? “Every day here is a Monday,” Dioneo chirps as he replenishes the cornucopia of food for the guests.

Victoriano Camacho, 46, of Calamba, Laguna, has been with the cruise company for 16 years and is now the sous chef (assistant of the executive chef). He started out at the Nikko Hotel in Makati. Now he earns $2,600 a month.

$1.7 billion of the total $10.8 billion remitted by OFWs in 2005 came from the sea-based OFWs. The number of Filipino seafarers working abroad as of 2005, is about 250,000 or approximately 20 percent of the world’s total.

‘White List’
The rise in the number could be attributed to the inclusion of the Philippines in the International Maritime Organization’s “White List” of 72 accredited countries. Being on the list means the country has continuously complied with the standards required for competent seafarers.

Being a Filipino seaman or seafarer does not necessarily mean working in cargo ships sailing drearily on a gray sea and being cooped up, fighting ennui until land appears on the horizon. A good number of the sea-based OFWs work in cruise ships. These luxury liners cater to vacation-bound, fun-loving, adventure-seeking humans, people who work hard and play hard, or who just want to be out of reach and listen to the music of the ocean, heeding the cruise logo catchphrase that says, “Get out there.” One could also choose to get holed up in the ship’s library.

The three-year-old German-built Brilliance of the Seas belongs to a fleet of cruise ships of the Royal Caribbean International (RCI) that sails in Europe, North America and the Caribbean. It has a passenger capacity of 2,500.
The Filipino seamen and women working on board are there to help make good things happen. The job is demanding as cruises involve service, hospitality, food, fun, travel, safety and, most of all, people.

Earning from tips
Bar server Vergie Mompil, an education course graduate, has spent eight years working on several cruise ships. Her husband, Edwin Vicero also works in another cruise ship, Jewels of the Sea.

Those in food service are not paid the fixed salary rate that workers in other sections receive. Food and drink servers like Vergie receive only $50 per 12-day cruise but the tips (provided for in the bill) earn her about $1,000. Two cruises per month or more than ten cruises in a six-month contract mean a lot when remitted to the Philippines. “After six months, we go on a two-month break,” Vergie adds.

Vergie is stationed at the bar in the main lobby ballroom at the foot of a luminous stairway where guests in formal wear linger to chat or dance to music provided mainly by—you guessed it—Filipino musicians.

Vergie and her husband have a three-year-old child who is being cared for by two aunts. The couple is building a home south of Manila and planning for a hardware store.

Not everyone is in the direct employ of RCI. Hoffman Roscano, 27, married, works as a photographer of a photo agency that operates aboard the ship. He and several photographers have their hands full during formal dinners and evening activities as well as land tours. During special occasions, they set up a mini studio where guests in their glittering “Titanic” finery could go for a formal shoot. Guests snap up the photos the morning after. Roscano also receives commissions from the sales.

‘Better than 5-star salary’
Karen del Carmen, in her 20s, works as a beauty therapist in the Brilliance Day Spa operated by an agency. A tourism graduate of a college in Bacolod, she had a work stint in a hotel in the Philippines after which she applied in a maritime agency. The spa company hired her and sent her to London for training.

“Better than a five-star salary,” is how del Carmen describes what she earns. After every 12-day cruise she gets two days off. “It’s fun working here,” she says as she looks up from her desk in the spa’s lavender-scented receiving area.
Nights are busy for the musicians who play in different venues aboard the ship. John Neri, 24, regales the night owls with violin music. As a child he studied music under a scholarship program for the musically gifted.

Neri met his wife in another cruise ship. Married for four years now, the couple is building a house in Kalookan City.

‘Oye como va’

Although now US-based, Vicky Gallarde of Vicky and The Holding Company band still calls the Philippines home. It’s a rollicking night when the band plays for a crowd with itchy feet.

Vicky switches without a hitch from lusty “Amor, amor, amor” to a staccato “Oye como va” while husband Chris and the rest segue from rhumba to disco beat. The band is a ship mainstay.

The couple has a room for two of their own at the crew quarters. The standard rooms for two for the crew have TVs and computers with e-mail capabilities. The Filipinos also have a daily two-page news digest called “Philippines Today.” There is a bar as well as games and exercise facilities.

Edgardo Villarino, 42, studied music in the University of the Philippines and sang with the UP Concert Chorus. He is married with three kids. The Inquirer chanced upon Villarino playing soothing classic guitar music by the poolside.
He was in the Caribbean several months earlier and he remembers the day a hurricane blew around there. There are less “sea days” in the Mediterranean, he says, meaning, the ship docks often in tourist havens.

Selling the Philippines
On his fifth contract now, Villarino says their own families could enjoy cruise privileges when there is space available. And could the entertainers have some fun during the day? “If there are less than five guests using the pool, we could take a dip,” Villarino says.

He dreams of cruises on Philippine waters that could rival those elsewhere. “We try to advertise the Philippines. Subic is so beautiful.” He talks of an island in Haiti that Royal Caribbean had developed.
Great workers

Bill Brunkhorst, American cruise director who makes sure entertainment is at its peak, has only good words for the Filipinos. “They are so talented and they learn very quickly,” he says. “They’re great workers.”

The Greek ship captain Michael Lachtaridis, a seasoned sea voyager who has been sailing the seas for 33 years says he has been working with Filipinos since the 1980s. “They get along well with other nationalities,” he says. “They are very educated and they are a happy lot.”

Whether it is instructing on wine tasting, giving beauty massages, serving at formal dinners, making omelets at the buffet breakfast, playing music, snapping photos amidst the Greek ruins, ensuring security and swiping cards at entry and exit points, disposing garbage or keeping staterooms clean, Filipino seamen and women are doing their best. And why not a Filipino guest chaplain or morgue attendant?

The least seen
The least seen but perhaps the most important because they make the ship sail the distances are those who work in the belly of the ship or the engine room. The lives of those on board are practically in the hands of these experts in ship engineering.

The Inquirer descended to the grime-free hard hat area and met some of the Filipinos there. Jessie Hervilla, Estefanio Joel, Steve Flores, Ramon Cerio, Percival Dilag and so many more. Chief Junior Engineer Rasmus Norling of Sweden has only high praises for the men who are seldom seen on deck.

But life for the OFWs on board these cruise ships is surely not problem-free, as life anywhere is not. Are the OFWs on these so-called floating four-star, five-star hotels better off than their counterparts in cargo ships and oil tankers? What lies beyond those glittering nights and sunny days at sea? What awaits them in their homeland? What awaits Edward Pampis, Joselito Benito, Cipertino Apil, Arlene Salon, Susan Gatmaitan, Arthur Pernia, Julius, Mijares, Juanito Embolori, Edwin Miranda, Enrico Sabido, Victor Amuyang, Ronaldo Carreon, Ernita Villanueva, George Tardo, Joselito Benito…

Don’t they feel resentful when they see food and drink flowing endlessly, people having so much fun and spending so much money for this kind of voyage, while they work so hard to keep these people thrilled and while the pine for home?
“Oh no,” says a food server without a tinge of resentment. “Many of them have worked hard too. And because of them we have our jobs. Someday we too could enjoy something like this.”

This Inquirer reporter was a regular paying guest on this cruise. The ship sailed from Barcelona and back and stopped in several key places on the Mediterranean coasts of Spain, France, Italy, Greece and Turkey.
http://globalnation.inquirer.net/ofwspotlight/ofwspotlight/view/20090312-193762/OFWs-From-belly-of-luxury-ship-to-top-deck

Marino stars (clockwise from left) Mike Tan, Victor Basa, Jan Nieto, Marco Alcaraz, Rico Barrera, Emilio Garcia, Bangs Garcia, Krista Ranillo and Allen Dizon | MANILA, Philippines - After its advance screening at SM Pampanga, Marino (Call of the Sea) will be previewed in various maritime schools all over the Philippines. Screenings for PAMMA (Pangasinan Merchant Marine Academy) maritime school is set today until Sept. 17. Special screenings for the thousands of seafarers organization members are set on the last week of September, through the efforts of United Filipino Seafarers president, Nelson Ramirez. The movie tells about the lives and sacrifices of seamen and their families, and pertinent issues like sea pirates, sunken ships, sexually-transmitted diseases and foreign employment. The posting original is here

http://www.philstar.com/Article.aspx?articleId=505388&publicationSubCategoryId=70

CEBU, Philippines - The English proficiency of Filipinos, particularly the Cebuanos, is one good advantage emphasized by a company engaged in inviting more investors to the city.

http://www.philstar.com/Article.aspx?articleId=504213&publicationSubCategoryId=108

If India can create a vast talent pool of professionally qualified and technically trained maritime personnel it can become the world’s largest provider of seafarers.

As on January 1, 2008 the world trading fleet was made up of 50,525 ships with a combined tonnage of 72,82,25000 gross tonnes. The world fleet is registered in over 150 countries and the world wide population of seafarers serving on internationally trading merchant ships is estimated to be in the order of 466,000 officers and 721,000 seamen. The largest provider of seafarers by far is the Philippines, with a 28 per cent share of the world’s crew.

Around 3,00,000 Filipino seafarers are employed on international trading ships which include 77,000 officers. Their remittances accounted for one-fifth of the $16.4-billion remitted to the Philippines by workers overseas in 2008. The Philippines supplied about 30 per cent of the world’s 1.2-million fleet personnel and their annual remittances to their home country account for $2.6 billion.

The Russian Federation is the second largest provider of seafarers, followed by Ukraine, China, India, Indonesia and Poland. At present, 27,000 officers and 55,000 Indian seamen are employed on Indian and foreign flag ships and this constitutes only 6 per cent of the global maritime manpower. India should be able to enhance its share from 6 per cent to at least 20 per cent.

Further, the 29 per cent share of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) region is dwindling rapidly, with young people in those countries not interested in a sea career; this presents India yet another opportunity to exploit to its advantage.
largest provider

A recent report of Drewry Shipping Consultants, London, assessed the current shortfall of officers in global shipping fleets to be 34,000, against a requirement of 498,000. Moreover, based on Drewry’s fleet growth projections and assuming officer supply continues to increase only at current levels, the report predicts that by 2012 the officer shortfall will have risen to 83,900. An industry estimate assesses that about 400,000 seafarers and 45,000 new officers would be needed to man the 10,000 vessels seen to join the global merchant fleet in the next three years.

How is that the Philippines, a country situated in the western Pacific Ocean, with about 7,100 islands, land area of 3,00,000 sq km and a population of about 100 million — comparable to Maharashtra — is able to have a 28 per cent share, whereas India, with a population of over 1,000 million and a great maritime tradition, has a much lower share of just 6 per cent?

What special talents and attributes do Filipino officers and seamen possess that make them more attractive to global shipping industry than Indian seafarers? It is claimed that Filipinos have a natural mariner’s instincts and always work cheerfully despite months of separation from their families. They never show that they are homesick. Filipino seamen are reported to work with dedication and discipline, they are hard-working and flexible, reliable and loyal and are willing to work for lower salaries than what is sometimes promised.

They are reported to be fluent in English, highly trainable and adaptable to changing environments, have good problem-solving abilities and a positive attitude to make friends easily with foreigners. They are generally law-abiding, patient and tolerant.

In fairness, one can say that Indian merchant navy officers are equally talented and competent, work with a great degree of dedication and commitment, and are indeed also hard-working, disciplined and loyal. They may not agree to work for lower salaries than promised as that would amount to exploitation by any employer. They may not compromise on working in risky environments as that would be dangerous to the safety and security of their lives. But, in all other respects, Indian officers and seamen have built up an excellent reputation and credibility globally for their professional skills and seamanship. Read the complete original posting here

http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2009/09/14/stories/2009091450230500.htm