BY: Capt. Alvils
The recent announcement to introduce the party list group AMOR SEAMAN drew flaks of criticism from various individuals with selfish motives and mind sets of protecting their vested interests rather than cooperate and collaborate with the majority for the betterment of the maritime industry.
I was compelled to write and circulate to all concerned this letter addressed to one of the leaders and prime movers of the movement:
Dear Rear Admiral Don,
Congratulations! Your response to the so-called perpetual critics of the maritime industry was well written. I just hope the message went through.
I was right in saying there will be negative and violent reactions from some sectors as soon as we make such pronouncement about the group. By now, there must already be a growing perception in the maritime industry that we may have started our movement on the wrong foot. This early there’s already bickering long before we even thought of electioneering. While you gave us advise not to “fight fire with fire”, my concern is that if I keep silent, people might think that these detractors has a point in saying that we are “misled”. My friends in the industry should know me by now that I don’t usually sit over the sidelines and watch the opposing team, with crab mentalities, play their own cynical, self-serving and counter-productive game of – “If we cannot do it, nobody can and no one will be allowed to try”.
The opposition’s advices, no matter how naïve, are well taken into consideration. But they should never think they are the “learned” and have the monopoly of talent. There are too many talented people in the maritime sector and this is perhaps the reason why the industry is currently divided. They try to outdo each other; thinking that their personal opinions matters most, that they’re always right and others are always wrong.
The real motive of their negative comments boggles the mind. It keeps me wondering why they’re trying to discourage us, wanting us to give up the struggle from where they left off and failed. Does the thought that we might succeed this time gives them the creeps? Granting that we do quit, what hope is there left for the maritime industry that has continued to regress for the past decades? Have they ever consider that if majority of us will continue to ignore the call for unity we will all be ridiculed and branded by our society as an industry that has the most number of bright, highly intellectual but narrow-minded leaders?
“If you cannot be part of the solution, don’t be part of the problem”, is my unsolicited advice to these critics and detractors.
Indeed, some party list groups are now trying to address the plight of seafarers in congress. The proposal to create a “Magna Carta” for seafarers is most welcome by the Industry. But isn’t it humiliating that we have to rely on these party list groups to alleviate the deteriorating conditions of shipping and seafaring in our country? Are we really that dumb and helpless that we cannot even do it ourselves?
Moreover, these party list groups do not really understand the intricacies and complexities of shipping and seafaring. There are other pressing issues of concern that need to be addressed, review of passed laws that remains detrimental to shipping and seafaring, and other laws that need to be enacted to meet the demands of a growing industry. Obviously, only the maritime people, not the various workers party list groups, know what is best for the industry.
For the skeptics, pessimists and doomsday Sayers, here’s what I have to say:
AMOR SEAMAN is a movement different from that of an association called “AMOR”. It was created with the sole intent of unifying the fragmented maritime Industry. If in the near future it transform into a party list group, its organizers, officers and members will not necessarily be its nominees. They will still be selected from our synergy of talented maritime professionals, prime movers, stakeholders, achievers and honorable leaders of the industry. So, if the reason for sour-grapping is the lack of chance to be a party list congressman, everyone is invited to show how good they are and present themselves for election during a nation-wide maritime assembly.
We did not just add the name “SEAMAN”. It was the product of a careful study, long hours of deliberations and exchange of opinions. It signifies not only one voice, unity and solidarity, but also the great number (we are the number one supplier of seafarers in the world) of our working force onboard domestic and worldwide trading vessels.
The word “SEAMAN” is a “name recall” that can easily be identified as to what sector it belongs even by a humble pedicab driver. Using acronyms, i.e. AMO, AKSI, ALON, might confuse even the ordinary seafarers, their families and the voting public. Suffice to say, the word “SEAMAN” per se can already campaign by itself.
Of course it is easy to list down advocacies. But, if people will only review the list with open mind, they will notice that these are the real predicaments of the industry that badly need to be addressed. Let me ask them this question: would they rather not see a working plan that a group like AMOR SEAMAN intends to undertake for the sake of the industry?
The rules in COMELEC have recently been changed since the last party list election. While it is true that party list groups spent a substantial amount of funds in the past just to accredit their group through the so called “back-door” accreditation, we were assured by credible and knowledgeable people that, under the new administration, COMELEC have now leveled up its playing field for accreditation and election of party list groups.
Besides the inspiring display of enthusiasms, interest and words of encouragement and support from seamen, major players and stakeholders of the industry and various private entities, what motivated us to create this movement was the 2009 Supreme Court ruling junking the COMELEC’s old formula of requiring 2% of the total votes cast for party list to win a seat in congress.
There will now be 2 rounds of allocating seats for party list. The following is a quoted article pertaining to this issue:
“In 2009, the Supreme Court ruled unconstitutional this formula, as written in RA 7941, also known as the Party-List System Act. Consequently, the SC formulated a new system of distributing party-list seats in Congress:
20% of all seats in the Lower House are allocated to sectoral representatives (meaning, the number of party-list Congressmen is now equal to 20% of the total number of district representatives)
The party-lists that garnered at least 2% of the total number of votes are guaranteed one seat. This is called the first round.
If the total number of party-list representatives after the first round does not reach the allocated number of seats for sectoral representatives, a formula based on the % of votes garnered would determine which winning party-lists would get more seats. This process would repeat until the 20% (of the total number district representatives) seats in the lower house is attained”.
In the last 2010 party list election, AGHAM, garnering the least number of votes among the winners, won a seat with only 146,032 votes. Unfortunately, the votes for the 3 competing maritime party list groups (counting the disqualified UFS), combined together, did not even hit the 100 K mark.
Our call for unity is sincere with no strings attached. If we can only set aside our personal ambitions and agree to a common goal of supporting a unified organization, the maritime sector can be a power to reckon with. As they say in Filipino, “malakas ang walis pagkat bigkis-bigkis”
Finally, despite my position as Secretary of AMOR SEAMAN, it was never my ambition to run for congress. I have always believed that there are more qualified and talented people in the maritime industry than me. Albeit I have one dream – to improve the quality of life of all Filipino seafarers, unite and uplift the industry where my sons, grandson and I belong; then leave a legacy in shipping that will long be remembered.
Yours truly,
Capt. Alvils
Secretary General, AMOR SEAMAN
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