Associated Marine Officers’ and Seamen’s Union of the Philippines (AMOSUP) president-chairman Dr. Conrad F. Oca lauded the country’s seafarers for continuously striving to deliver their best to ships’ principals the Filipino brand of professional seamanship. AMOSUP steadily remains as the world’s largest seafarers’ union with more than 100,000 members. Dr. Conrad F. Oca Last year, overseas Filipino seafarers (OFS) remitted more than US$5.8 billion to the country through banks. In conjunction with the 23rd National Seafarers’ Day (NSD) celebration on Sunday (Sept. 30), Dr. Oca, told the Maritime Press Club of the Philippines (MPCP), “To date, Filipino seafarers are still most in demand from the world’s shipping community,” attributing to our seafarers’ their innate character of being workaholic, insistence to learn updated mechanics and trends in their job, notably at workplace; and the qualities of being friendly and resilient. Aside from this, he said, they posses good command of the English language, and communications improvement are in place as majority, if not all, are information technology (IT)-oriented, this is why they could quickly communicate, talk to their families and love ones, colleagues, through info gadget or facilities. They could also easily adjust to the cultures of their foreign counterparts,” he quipped. The NSD was held at Manila’s San Andes Sports Complex, where winners in 2018 Search for Ten Most Outstanding Maritime Students (TTOMSP) were announced and honored by stakeholders led by Western Union and Apostleship of the Sea (AOS)-Asia. In order for the country to produce world-class and globally competitive deck and engine officers, as envisioned by AMOSUP founder, the late Capt. Gregorio S. Oca, “We continue to enhance maritime education and training through brilliant faculty and trainers of Maritime Academy of Asia and the Pacific (MAAP) which we run, headed by top caliber maritime educator Vice Admiral Eduardo Ma. R. Santos AFP (ret.), former chief of the Philippine Navy and AFP vice chief of staff, according to the union chief. VAd Santos is considered in the industry as among the best maritime educators in Asia. The International Maritime Organization (IMO) in its Circular No. 1884 dated July 11, 1996, requested all member nations to celebrate World Maritime Day (WMD) during the last week of September which is the maritime week. In the Philippines, Proclamation No. 1094 (series of 1997) states that, since the NMD and WMD are celebrated within the last week of September of every year, the consolidation of NSD within the same period makes the three maritime-related celebrations more significant and encompassing, according to aforesaid Proclamation.