Establishment of a National Maritime Manpower Training System

May 1, 1977

LETTER OF INSTRUCTIONS NO. 538

Establishment of a National Maritime Manpower Training System for the upgrading of the Maritime profession, maritime research and development, and consolidation of all sea-faring training centers in the Philippines. aisa dc

Pursuant to the provisions of Presidential Decree No. 442, New Labor Code, as amended, to promote employment and human resources development, to the provisions of Presidential Decree No. 6-A, Educational Development Decree of 1972, for innovative schemes to maximize the contribution of the educational system to economic development and social progress and to the enunciated policy of the government to maximize generation of foreign exchange earnings, and in the interest of ensuring safe navigation and the full realization of the operating efficiency of modern vessels both in domestic and foreign trade, you are hereby directed to formulate an improved national maritime manpower training system whose objectives and aims are:

1. To update and upgrade the education and training of Philippine merchant marine officers and ratings through job-oriented upgrading and refresher courses;

2. To train seafarers to be conversant and skillful with the use of advanced technologies now adopted in modern luxury liners, oil tankers and other bulk carriers, container ships, refrigerated ships, etc.;

3. To provide for education and training of much needed expertise in the supervisory and managerial aspect in shipping and for continuity of development in every level of skills supportive of national economy.

In view of the national policy of expanding the national merchant fleet to increase its participation in the transport of Philippine export products and save foreign exchange for the economy and the resulting need of importing the national maritime manpower training system as enunciated in the New Labor Code, as amended, and the Educational Development Decree of 1972, you are hereby authorized to call upon any concerned office or agency of the Government for the implementation of these instructions. The National Seamen Board of the Department of Labor is designated as the Secretariat of the program. cdt

DONE in the City of Manila, this 1st day of May, in the year of Our Lord, Nineteen Hundred and Seventy-Seven.