Hell and High Water for Filipino Seamen

Link to Article By Cher S Jimenez  HONG KONG - On Sunday, 18 Filipino seamen were abducted in the Middle East's Gulf of Aden as a Korean cargo ship was attacked by pirates, representing the latest incident in a spate of high-sea hijackings that threatens to stifle crucial Middle Eastern-Asian trade at a time of global economic weakening.  As one of the world's leading labor exporters, the Philippines has been particularly hard hit by the maritime lawlessness, with at least 110 Filipinos taken captive since this July. So far 61 of them, including the body of one Filipino crewmember killed during one of the takeovers, have been released after ship owners agreed to  pay ransoms, according to Philippine Labor Secretary Marianito Roque.  A Philippine official who requested anonymity said that 26 additional Filipino sailors were due for release by Somali pirates as their employer had agreed to pay ransom. Seven vessels from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and the US 5th Fleet now patrol the pirate-infested Gulf of Aden, where an average of 106 vessels pass daily through the strategic waterway.  The increased presence of international patrols has done little to halt ransom-seeking mainly Somali gunmen, as pirate attacks from the conflict-ridden African nation surged this month, with at least six successful hijackings since November 7, according to figures from the International Maritime Bureau.  Filipino sailors, whom Philippine government agencies estimate represent as much as one-third of the world's shipping personnel, have become unwitting targets of the pirate attacks. Official statistics from the Philippine Labor Department show that about 270,000 overseas foreign workers (OFWs) are currently employed by foreign maritime firms that transport oil, cargo and passengers across the globe.  With over 9 million Filipinos scattered across 200 countries worldwide, the Philippines is one of the globe's leading exporters of labor. Foreign remittances topped US$14 billion last year, representing over 10% of national gross domestic product. Filipino seafarers contributed an estimated $2.2 billion of that total, according to government statistics. Remittances by OFWs had risen by 17.2% from January to August this year compared to the same period in 2007, statistics from the Central Bank of the Philippines showed.  President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has expressed her hopes that OFW deployment would top the 1 million mark to help the Philippines weather the mounting global economic storm. Some say the desire to keep foreign remittances flowing explains why her government has maintained a controversial no-ransom policy for the growing number of abducted Filipino seamen.  Migrant organizations in the Philippines have asked the government to temporarily stop the deployment of Filipino seamen to ships that cross the Gulf of Aden. The government's no-ransom policy, meanwhile, stems from its dealings with the homegrown Abu Sayyaf terror group, which has a long history of using kidnapping for ransom to fund its operations.  Impractical policy Arroyo's administration instead has responded by imposing limp new regulations governing the deployment of Filipino maritime workers. The state-run Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA), an agency attached to the Labor Department which regulates the deployment of OFWs, recently requested the owners of foreign ships scheduled to pass through the Gulf of Aden to allow their crew to disembark before reaching the pirate-infested waters or double their hazard pay.  Critics, including a Filipino labor official in Hong Kong who also acts as a consultant for recruitment agencies, believe that the newly implemented measures miss the mark and offer scant protection for overseas workers in a de facto conflict zone. Manny Geslani, a consultant to many shipping agencies, says the new policy is "impractical" because no ship owners would actually allow their crew to disembark, including in New Delhi, Mumbai or possibly Mozambique, before completing their journeys.  In a telephone interview with Asia Times Online, Labor Secretary Roque admitted that the safety of Filipino sailors is mainly at the mercy of the international contingents now patrolling the Gulf of Aden. "We can't do anything about it. It's the rest of the world that can protect them. [NATO is] running the whole show," he said.  Despite the POEA's new policy permitting Filipino sailors to disembark to a safe port before their ship crosses the Gulf of Aden, most still opt to brave the danger in exchange for increased hazard pay. Filipino sailors make anywhere between US$1,000 to $3,000 per month, considerably more than they could earn at home and in lower-end jobs such as housekeeping and construction.  The willingness of Filipino sailors to shoulder the added risk speaks to the growing desperation of OFWs to keep their jobs in a softening global economy. Roque said that most ships thattravel between Asia and Europe still choose to pass through the Gulf of Aden despite the danger since a detour around the Horn of Africa would tack a costly two weeks onto their journey.  Manpower agencies in the Philippines that deploy Filipino sailors have recently appealed to Arroyo's government to request additional warships from the United Nations to protect ships passing through Somali waters. However that multinational protection isn't likely to come any time soon, analysts say.  "The government can't impose a ban on seamen because it can't monitor where their ships are going. They just have to suffer the perils of the trade," says consultant Geslani. He ventures the Philippine Labor Department is actually loath to curb the deployment of more seafarers at a time an estimated 40,000 of them, including a large number employed by luxury liners, are expected to lose their jobs in the months ahead on the waves of a less buoyant global economy.  Cher S Jimenez is a Filipino journalist based in Hong Kong. She wrote for the Business Mirror in Manila, Gulf News Manila Bureau, The Associated Press and GMA7 online. She was a Yuchengco media fellow at the University of San Francisco where she conducted research on undocumented Filipino migrants in 2007.  (Copyright 2008 Asia Times Online (Holdings) Ltd. All rights reserved. Please contact us about sales, syndication andrepublishing.)