ISSUED more than a week too late with vague and lacking guidelines.
This is how a maritime expert described the latest advisory issued by the Department of Migrant Workers (DMW) with regards to the safety and security of Filipino seafarers who are sailing in high-risk areas.
Advisory 11, series of 2026 was released by the DMW last March 8, eight days after the war between Iran and US-backed Israel broke.
It designated the Persian Gulf, Strait of Hormuz, and Gulf of Oman as “warlike and high-risk areas.” These strategic waterways for 20 percent of the world’s oil and gas shipments were shut down by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps last March 2, just a day after missile strikes rocked the oil-rich Gulf region.
“The issuance of advisory seemed to be very late; it should have been issued from the beginning of the war,” Edgardo Flores, a maritime consultant and a veteran ship captain, said.
IBF’s Warlike Operations Area Committee (WOAC) designated the said waterways as warlike and high-risk until March 23, 2026.
Under the advisory, Filipino seafarers are also granted the right to refuse deployment in said areas. However, DMW identified special benefits for those who are already aboard ships transiting the war-torn waterways.
These benefits include a bonus equal to basic wage that is payable for the actual duration of stay/transit, doubled compensation for death and disability, right to refuse sailing with repatriation costs shouldered by the company, and compensation equal to two months’ basic wage.
In the Gulf of Oman, a seafarer is entitled to bonus equivalent to basic wage, payable only on the day the vessel is attacked in an act of piracy, and double compensation for death and disability if they occur on the day the vessel is attacked.
Flores however questioned the ambiguity of these benefits.
“The double compensation for seafarers should be given the day the war broke out. Will there be retroactive payments?” he asked.
The advisory also required shipowners to increase security arrangements for any transit through these waters.
Flores said, however, that the use of armed guards in the Persian Gulf is not necessary.
"It's a war, and having armed guards onboard is useless since they cannot protect the ship from airborne strikes," he said.
Flores added that armed guards are only applicable in pirate-infested areas.
