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| Another Busy day for MARINA office in releasing SIRB'S |
As what was
included on the receipt of my order for my seaman's book , I had to go back to
marina office and claim it there on March 11th.
As usual I
prepared my usual things again for the visit in the old manila, quite frankly
I'm always reluctant to go there given that the city is heavily polluted and
had quite a number of times ended up going home having allergic fever by just
visiting the place. Manila for me is a dusty old smelly city, with a lot of
thugs and thieves . I only go there for business reasons - no more, no less.
Living in Marikina is way better than manila.
Anyway
going back , I'm in not in rush this time to get my Seaman's book. Took the
LRTA-2 train going to Recto manila and rode a jeep heading to Kalaw Street in
Manila, and got off there. As usual Kalaw Street is still filled with hundreds
of unemployed sailors hanging out in that area, doing the same usual stuff they
always do.
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| checking if all the details are correct |
Getting the
Seaman's book wasn't that hard at all, I just dropped the
receipt on the small carton box located in front on the booth and wait a few
minutes and My name was called in the queue , afterwards the person on the
booth advised me to check all the details if it was correct or not then return it to him afterwards. I took the new Seaman's book along with the green
application form and checked every detail if there's something wrong. Everything checked out fine and I returned
it, a few minutes came by and my name is called back again and this time my
Seaman's is definitely mine now.
There is
some subtle changes on the 2013 Philippine Seaman's Book ,as I noticed it’s a
bit shinier and less bulky compared to my previous one. The letter imprints
are more sharper and the front cover lettering is a bit larger now. Overall its
still looks like a passport with only subtle changes.
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| The Comparison , left side is the new seaman's book of 2013, middle is the passport and right side is the previous Seaman's book circa 2009 |
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| The inside pages of the new Seaman's Book , Left is the previous one (2009) and right side is the New one (2013) |
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| As viewed the front page is a Bit slimmer and Shinier, left is the new one and right side is the previous one, on the upper left side of the new one you can see the color blue stick , Honestly i think its a chip of some sort like the ones inside the a Philippine passport, the blue sticker has a registration code were you can verify on the online website of marina |
Hurriedly
went out in MARINA office and went to KALAW street to check a few stuff and see
how life is going there, well as usual I found nothing interesting and decided
that I should try SM Manila Mall for a change. By the time I got there I didn’t
realized that SM Manila was a busy place , more busier than any other SM Malls
that I had visited. There were hordes of people going in and out of the area ,
and its so busy that I could probably drop off the entire volume of SM Marikina
folks there and nobody would have ever noticed.
Went to the top most level of the mall and saw three particular things , One is an OFW Center (more like an OFW Café) , a Department of Foreign Affairs Office ( for folks who want to get a Philippine Passport) and a Seafarer's Center (Supposedly backed by "ANGKLA" Political Party) . Obviously the thing that caught my attention was the latter,
Well I was
greeted by a receptionist when I came in to take a look and said that there was
an ongoing "JOB FAIR" for sailors but when I turned my head around a
few inches I saw nothing but a dead place, I told the receptionist that I'm not
interested in looking for a job and I'm only here to take a look. The
receptionist let me in.
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| Logo reminds me of a "Cherry Mobile" phone , Funny XD |
As I said
the place has no life and only less than 30 people are inside of it, I saw a
few booths but the it only says that the job openings are only for Ship officers
(Licensed Sailor's) and not for ratings. Well I'm not interested in looking for
a job as a sailor anyway, and there's nothing much to look at on the place and
Kalaw Street is a much livelier place compared to this one. The only difference is that this so called
"Seafarers Center" is much more comfy given it has air
conditioning. Truly though Kalaw is an
inferior version of a hangout place , it is still iconic and definitely a place
of our own sailors.
I took a
few pictures and left the place.
Decided to
go home and took the LRTA-2 and rode a public jeepney to my house.
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| Click this and take a closer look on the job openings on the screen , It definitely says that they ONLY NEED OFFICERS NOT RATINGS, if your rating then don't bother wasting time, effort and you piece of application form |
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| See what i mean ?!!! the place is as dead as a ghost town, be better off in Kalaw street , Though this place is a bit classy and comfortable rather than in Kalaw |
