By HENRY EMPEÑO | Subic Bay Freeport

FIVE Filipino seafarers disembarked from their ship here on Thursday, kick-starting what is expected to be a regular crew-change operation that would help decongest Manila port of ships awaiting their turn to let off crewmen with expired contracts and take in fresh ones.

The operation, which is an inter-agency project spearheaded by the Department of Transportation (DOTr) to facilitate the speedy and safe change of crews, “freed” the inbound seafarers in a matter of hours—a happy counterpoint to months of being stranded in their cargo vessel at sea.

The five Filipino crewmen disembarked from MV Dapeng Star, a liquefied natural gas (LNG) tanker home-ported in Hong Kong.

Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) Chairman and Administrator Wilma T. Eisma said this was the first batch of crewmen to arrive here after Subic was designated by the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF) as a hub for international crew change.

“The operation went without a hitch and was over in just a matter of three hours,” Eisma said.

She recounted that at 7:40 a.m., a tugboat left the San Bernardino jetty here to meet up with the Dapeng Star, which had anchored near Grande Island at the mouth of Subic Bay.

The tugboat carried personnel from the Maritime Industry Authority (MARINA) and the Coast Guard, who conducted an initial health check-up of the inbound seafarers and had them suited up in personal protective equipment (PPE) prior to disembarkation.

“At 10 a.m. the tugboat was back at the jetty. The five seafarers boarded a van to the Subic airport for RT-PCR test and processing of their documents. Then at exactly 11:14 a.m., or just over three hours, the seafarers were already departing for the Manila Grand Opera Hotel, which shall serve as their quarantine facility for 14 days,” she added.

Eisma said the opening of the crew-change hub here is Subic’s contribution in solving the global problem besetting the maritime industry.

“This does not only concern crewmen longing to go home to their families, or the congested ports where ships await their turn to disembark their crew. It is, in fact, a problem of huge proportion because it affects the global supply chain,” she pointed out.

“With the start of crew-change operations here, Subic becomes a part of the solution to this global problem,” she added.

Subic was designated as a crew change hub in July, and was formally opened on August 22 as part of the part of the so-called “Philippine Green Lane” that would facilitate the safe travel of seafarers and speed up crew change during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Industry estimates place the number of seafarers stranded on ships worldwide from 200,000 to 300,000, with roughly the same number waiting to embark. The Philippines is said to be one of the top suppliers of maritime workers, along with India and China.

The Department of Transportation (DOTr), which spearheads the inter-agency project, has previously opened crew-change hubs in the Port of Manila and Port Capinpin in Orion, Bataan.

Subic operations, however, only involve point-to-point embarkation and disembarkation pending local community approval of the second phase where inbound seafarers could quarantine in local hotels after their RT-PCR test.

DOTr Assistant Secretary Narciso Vingson, who supervised the maiden crew-change operation in Subic, stressed that crew-change protocols were strictly observed and that a “no-contact” policy was put in place to ensure the safety of the seafarers and the attending personnel. ~