Saturday, July 12, 2008 Ships in RP seaworthy: Marina 7
OFFICIALS of the Maritime Industry Authority (Marina) 7 yesterday assured the riding public in Central Visayas and the whole country that the ships plying the domestic trade are seaworthy.
Marina 7 Director Glenn Cabañez said engineers in Region 7 and in the entire country are faithfully discharging their duties and responsibilities. They are guided by Memorandum Circular (MC) 203, otherwise known as Ship Safety Inspection System.
“When they inspected the vessel, they are armed with an inspection checklist and they check everything on board the vessel such as safety equipment, navigational equipment, communication equipment, life-saving devices, and the hull and machineries are all inspected,” Cabañez said.
He made the statement after Administrator Vicente Suazo Jr. alleged that the inspection team he created in Manila that was sent to Cebu to inspect the vessels found some defects, and he wondered why these vessels passed audit and inspection at the Marina 7.
Companies
Suazo said that while he received reports about some Marina 7 personnel who are in the payroll of some shipping companies, he cannot act on it because the ship owners won’t provide evidence.
“With due respect to our administrator, we pray and hope that he was quoted out of context,” Cabañez said.
Cabañez said that in addition or parallel to MC 203, there is the National Safety Management Code of Conduct. This is the local version of the International Safety Management Code of Conduct.
“We have been implementing this for several years and this is covered by MC 159 (for local shipping) and MC 143 (for international shipping),” he said.
He added that in these particular circulars, the shipping company and the vessel are audited as to their safety and service system on board the ship, the competency of the crewmembers on board the vessel, and the competency of the service personnel.
Implementation
Marina engineers, who include licensed mechanical and civil engineers and naval architects, also audit vessels if these follow the safety management system manual.
“I think they (Marina engineers) will not gamble their license by not following the checklist during inspection of vessels,” Cabañez said.
With no exception, he said they are classed by either international or local classification society based on another circular issued by the Department of Transportation and Communication of which Marina is under.
“This is private entity outside of Marina that tells the public that these vessels are seaworthy by issuing class certificates,” Cabañez said.
Cabañez also said that they believed that ship owners are responsible.
“I don’t think they would invest a lot of millions of pesos and allow their vessels to sail unseaworthy. That is again parallel to what Marina is doing,” he said. (EOB)
