Loren: Gov't should do more for release
of Filipino seamen hostaged by pirates

Senator Loren Legarda yesterday urged the government to do more to secure the release of Filipino seamen being held by Somali pirates, like closely coordinating with the United States and other countries that are conducting anti-piracy maneuvers.

Loren issued the statement as she noted a report by the International Seafarers Action Center (ISAC) that half of the 228 seamen being held hostage by Somali pirates are Filipinos. The hostages were seized by the sea marauders from 13 ships.

"The Philippines must join the international community in securing the release of the hostages and in helping minimize piracy worldwide," said Loren.

"We cannot fence-sit on this issue because it involves the fate of hundreds of Filipino sailors and the welfare of their families here at home," she declared.

About 350,000 sailors manning oil tankers, passenger vessels and luxury liners are Filipinos, according to official statistics cited by ISAC, a leading seafarer group based in the Philippines. The senator supported a call made by ISAC for the Philippine government to make sure that the contracts of Filipino seafarers would include provisions that would give them the right to refuse to man ships bound for high-risk areas like those passing off the Somali coast.

This week, the United States navy rescued from Somali pirates the American captain of a US commercial ship.

"We must determine the conditions of the captive Filipino seafarers and exert positive efforts to secure their immediate release. Government must also assure the relatives of the hostages that everything is being done to bring them home unharmed," said Loren.

She stressed that the labor contracts of Filipino seafarers must be iron-clad to protect them not only against employer abuses, but also to help them turn down risky deployment without penalty. The piracy reporting center of the Malaysia-based International Maritime Bureau said that there had been 74 piracy attacks off Somalia since January, compared to 111 during the same period in 2008.