The Department of Labor and Employment yesterday opened a new Maritime Office geared at ensuring the country's leadership in shipmanning and boosting coordination among industry stakeholders,

a press release from DOLE said. The Maritime Office will be under the direct supervision of Secretary Arturo Brion and will be manned by Eustacio Nimrod Enriquez, also the deputy executive director of the DOLE's National Maritime Polytechnic/Maritime Training Council.

Luzviminda Padilla, Labor Undersecretary for Employment, said the new facility will undertake a coordinative function doing full time work to push and follow up the country's initiatives on the maritime sphere, the press release said.

The new office replaces the government's Technical Committee on Maritime Affairs, and will assist the Labor Secretary in identifying the responses to challenges and issues that affect the maritime industry.

"This industry is responsible for facilitating employment to some 247,497 overseas Filipino seafarers as of 2006," she said, adding that, "the DOLE hopes that with its own initiatives and those of the industry, we could provide solutions to further boost the competitiveness of our seafarers in the world shipping community."

The Maritime Office will come up with programs and actions, as it pushes and follows up the maritime initiatives undertaken by government agencies and the other stakeholders in the maritime industry.

These are the Maritime Training Council, the National Maritime Polytechnic, the Professional Regulation Commission, Overseas Workers Welfare Administration, Philippine Overseas Employment Administration, Commission on Higher Education, and the shipping and manning sectors, and the unions, the press release added.*

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