Let me state my biases up front: I was the first administrator of POEA. I was, for a while, undersecretary and then secretary of labor. I chair a Philippine-based school for would-be officers. I am against a ban on ships that pass anywhere near Somalia.

First, the facts.

Filipino seafarers account for about a third of the world’s mariners, about 28 percent of those who leave the country annually, about 40 percent of inward remittances. The lowest-ranked seafarer would make about $700 a month. A captain would make anywhere between $7-15 thousand depending on the ship they command. Marami tayong tao na nahuli sa Somalia kasi marami tayong tao overall. It is not as if the pirates single us out. There are just more of us on-board ocean-going vessels.

When a seaman/officer is contracted for a nine-month contract, he is contracted to join a ship, not a particular route. Ships, after all make their living from picking up cargo. Much of the world’s merchandise — from onions to oil — get distributed through ships. Where a ship goes is only known from port to port, a function of available space and its distance from the next possible destination or pick-up point.

Over time, we have become the seafarers of choice. And why not? We work hard, we have English skills, we have one of the better training systems in the world and we are organized and regulated. One shipowner representative told me that when their ship met with a case of severe food poisoning which downed even the ship captain, the First Officer who happened to be Filipino took over and had the affected crew brought to shore by helicopter, took over command of the ship and then got it back to its route as soon as things normalized. Magaling talaga ang Pilipino.

We may, of course, disembark if the ship is ordered to pass anywhere near the Gulf of Aden. And again, why not? Forced labor and involuntary servitude has been off the books for some time. But to be selective about the routes we take would work against us. Eighty-five thousand ships pass through that Gulf annually which comes up to about 250 ships a day. That is a lot of ships to get off from. And it will not help the good reputation of the Filipino seafarers if we do this.

There are a lot of things that we can ask shipowners to do for our seafarers.

They must tell us about the preventive mechanisms that are available onboard so that our workers do not get in harm’s way. For instance, is there satellite monitoring of their journey. Is there escort availability in the particular sealane or corridor where they will pass. Are our workers adequately trained in case piracy happens so that their existence is not threatened? Are they sufficiently insured against this latest development? What steps are the International Maritime Organization and other Migration institutions taking to mitigate this menace?

I realize that this is a problem for the Department of Foreign Affairs headed by Secretary Bert Romulo as monitored by USEC Sonny Conejos of the DFA Office of Migrant Workers Affairs. But as hard as the problem has been, we have not lost a person to the pirates and most of workers have already come home. This speaks volumes about our diplomatic capacity. There is a certain logic behind a ban. But in the long term, it is going to be bad for us.