THE Maritime Industry Authority (Marina) has resumed the processing and issuance of the Seafarer’s Identification Document (SID) and Seafarer’s Record Book (SRB) following the August cyberattack that breached their system and affected the deployment of Filipino seafarers. The processing of expedited applications for SID and SRB started last Sept. 1 at the Marina Central Office. “The transaction was very smooth. I came here this morning, and now I’ve already received it. But given the situation, we just need to be patient, as Marina is handling it well,” Yan Ladop, a seafarer who availed of the expedited application service, said. Meanwhile, regular applications continue to be processed via batch printing, the release of which can be expected approximately one week after processing. It can be recalled that the Aug. 13 cyberattack on its systems paralyzed Marina’s issuance of SID and SRB. Immediately after the incident, and in response to the mounting concern among seafarers and manning agencies, Marina issued temporary interim certifications between Aug. 14 to Aug. 29. Marina maintained that no Filipino seafarer lost employment or missed a scheduled deployment due to the system outage as Port State Control authorities accepted and recognized the Marina-issue certificates. At present, Marina continues to monitor the workflow to ensure the smooth and continuous delivery of services to seafarers.
