THOUGHTS OF A RATING

48 hours ago..........

restaurant inside maritime hotel 

Finally after quite some time I had now finally finished all my paper prerequisite requirements to get my ass deployed in CONTI Greenland. Personally I'm satisfied that I have already settled all that needs to be done rather than hurling my way on the last minute. Career Company says that my deployment will be on this June but I bet it will be on July, regardless on which month I'd be deployment will not matter - For now all I can say is that I'm on the waiting list.

Submitting the two remaining requirements and attending PDOS seminar (Pre departure orientation)was accomplished in a snap.

For the moment I had been pondering on a few things like questioning why Filipino sailors have to get COP's. Rumour's started way back somewhere in 2010, apparently there was this so called STCW meeting that was held in manila, had no detail on what was discussed there but what I do know it held a conclusion that all training's and other certificates previously taken by all sailors (Filipino's specifically) will be scrapped by 2017. I'm not exactly sure also who said that, but I can only surmise that since this STCW was held in manila , some dumb fuck MR. KNOW-IT-ALL Filipino's (probably a PMMA or MAAP origin) said they wanted to "Uplift Maritime Training Standards". In other words these Filipino's bastards don't have an idea that they're going to make a fucking miserable mistake on the maritime community. They never realized that the only merchant marine assholes out there that are going to get sacked are us Filipino's

The end result of the STCW manila conventions was that some trainings have been changed (or simply just renamed cosmetically from their former counterparts) such examples will be this COP's. like MARINA COP which is basically just a renamed version of TESDA COC, and training seminar COP's which is basically also a renamed version of NAC. Another example is the "GTF" seminar which will be renamed "BTOCT" (something like that) and "STCT" will be renamed "ATCT" (specialized training for chemical tanker ---> Advance training for chemical tanker)

Training centre's here in the Philippines approve this on a self-serving reason, we pay them more on training certificates that have only been changed cosmetically by changing the name.

On the lower level, ratings such as me will have to bear the whiplash of starting all over again on each and every training seminars I took since I was a deck cadet, unfortunately for me I'm a tanker man which have more training seminars compare to any other "rating" class of sailors. More seminars - means more expenses in renewing those seminars, definitely bad news for me.

Anyway going back …..

NAIA Terminal 1, the second worst airport on the world (well at least its second and not number one), yup indeed and they're certainly living up to their name on the worst service. Small and cramped compared to other "Asian" airports in the region and plus outside taxi's are sharks ripping off money out of helpless tourist (and fellow OFW's)  on over priced transportation fees 

At about Thursday, June 26th . I called career ship management office to confirm if despatch on Friday was confirmed. "Reggie" confirmed that I needed to report on this day to get my plane tickets and some documents, In other words its confirmed that despatch on Friday is on scheduled.

I went there as early as I could and got the documents (plus plane ticket) along with the coveralls that I will use for Conti Greenland, aside from that I also got to see the other co-workers who will be joining me on the flight to Amsterdam Netherlands  (the messman and bosun) . To my dismay I'm unable to encash the "Cash Advance" cheque on the nearest bank due to bad weather.

Fortunately enough the plane ticket says that our flight will be on the latter afternoon and I still have enough time to encash it. I gave the money I encash to my mom, as she needs it for some expenses for the house.

On the morning of Friday , Aunt tess introduced to us one of my cousins who will look after mom and dad while I'm away. I do hope that this cousin of mine is up to task in looking after them while I'm gone in Europe, and he doesn't screw up on his part time babysitting job.

As I left the house for work, I didn't have any heavy heart over leaving nor the gloomy mood compared to my previous departures before, probably because I'd be just away from home for 6 months and that I'd be back in either after Christmas or after new year. This for the record is the shortest working contract time I had ever handled for the moment.

My sister and her current boyfriend accompanied me to NAIA 1 airport terminal and ensured that I got thru on the luggage check, they made sure that my luggage won't go beyond the 40 kilogram limit (it registered 37 kilograms). After the luggage check , I already sent home my sister and her boyfriend and was already out on my own with two other strangers (the messman and bosun) and boarded the plane bounded to Amsterdam.  Based on the china airline plane tickets , the first stop will be Taiwan then change planes from Taiwan to Amsterdam, Netherlands,. A pretty straight forward flight not the usual "Bouncing"   flight arrangements career usually give's to its sailors. On the latter I found out that Taiwan to Netherlands flight wasn't exactly a direct flight route on china airlines and that there is a "stop over" flight in Thailand for an hour. I had no problems on what the procedure and what to do on a stopover flight scenario and frankly I'm very fortunate that my co-workers here (the bosun and messman) are smart enough and more considerate in not leaving their people behind. I found out that "stop over" flights are just basically going around in another security check before going in the waiting lounge for the plane.

In flight shows in china airlines 

The second flight was a long one and didn't got a good rest as their isn't enough leg room on the cramped space in airlines. As for the food , it wasn't that bad eating flight meals and I've already gotten used to eating food that is just reheated from microwave ovens. China airlines hospitality and flight accommodations on my personal rate is just a mid-tier, it not as good as Cathay pacific airlines (or Qatar airlines) and certainly not as bad as Philippine Airlines.

We arrived in Amsterdam, Netherlands at around 11am and after another security check with the customs. We finally got out of the airport and was greeted with an NSB liaison guy named "Sam", we rode a van which he took us to Rotterdam (2 hours travel)then to a local hotel called "Maritime Hotel" , probably a sailor themed hotels here in Rotterdam. 

HELLO Netherlands !!! its been four years since i last visited you, Hope your people treat me well on the hospitality part cause i don't like assholes :D

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WHERE IT ALL BEGAN

Can't believe that after four long years I'm back here again in Rotterdam Netherlands, It feels like it was just like yesterday when i still a deck cadet that i first started my career here as a sailor. I'm not being nostalgic about my situation knowing that I'd only be staying here in less than a day and be joining ship onboard conti Greenland in the morning. I haven't given any detail yet on how i got here on this blog as well (which I haven't wrote anything at all for more than a week ) - My next post entry will shed more info. For now I'm enjoying the scenery before I get to business. I do hope that this next 6 months wont be as difficult in working relations as what happened to me down in Cape TALLIN ship.

ACTUAL FIRE DRILL VIDEOS

This is the actual videos of a fire drill onboard a ship, I took the video using a spy cam. Hope this will be useful as a reference on people who will view my blog

SHIPBOARD FAMILIARIZATION VIDEOS

This are actual shipboard familiarization videos I filmed using my spy cam. unfortunately im not proficient in having a spy cam and most of it was pointed "downward"during my stay in CAPE Tallin

FINISHING WHAT I STARTED

Traffic along EDSA highway,  Really hate getting crammed on the bus - but taking a bus is much better than the local train 

Yet again another week has passed for me to make any move regarding my sailing job. Obviously money is getting scarce again now that I'm still temporarily unemployed, But despite this believe it or not - I'm happy here at the house rather than be out there onboard a ship working. At least here I constantly monitoring my mom and dad's health and go to their aid in case something bad happens.

My recent visit on career ship management had me compressing work that should be done for a month to only a day . I reported back to the office because of this so called BTU / BTR COP document which regrettably haven't been settled with by PNTI. The staff on the NAC counter in Career Ship Management ( "Mariz" ) gave me a set of papers that will be needed to "expedite" BTU / BTR Cop documents. Now the big question here is whether or not I will go directly to M.A.R.I.N.A. and give these papers (skipping out PNTI) or hand out these papers to PNTI and order them to hurry up the pace in processing my papers? (or at least intimidate them to hurry up)

After the documents were given I went to the medical booth to get the referral for my second dosage of the cholera vaccine, didn't took a while to get one and after getting the form I next proceeded to the "license booth" to give my photocopies of MARINA COP certificate, PSCRB Nac Certificate, GTF Nac certificate and BST Nac certificate for the Liberian's Seaman's Book.

On my last agenda for the day, I went to the "reporting" booth and asked "Lucita" if I could change some settings on my allotment slip. She said it's ok and gave me my previous slip I submitted. Settings I change was to increase Mom's allotment and transfer the deductions on my pay to my sisters allotment

The following day…..

Went early to Jacob's ladder clinic, early at malate area to have another dose of the anti-cholera vaccine. It was a very quick agenda, just presented my yellow card and waited a few minutes for my name to be called and took a gulp on the liquid and it was all over. Next agenda I went was go to intramurous manila in PNTI building and talk my way if they could express the processing of my BT COP certificate.

When I got there I asked first if they have already finished the processing of my BT certificate, the staff answered that they haven't. I followed another question if there was any way I could change the "status" of my application to expedite and presented to them the "expedite" documents coming from my company , The staff said they can change the status, and told me to wait in a couple of minutes.

My contract specs given by Career company

Waited there for about an hour and pictured that they may process my documents lighting fast, to my dismay and horror when they called me and mentioned something about a refund ( what the hell ?!!!) and gave me a some sort of letter along with all my documents plus the TCRHOA and Enrolment form and 200 plus PHP. It was clear that PNTI is ditching me out on the deal and leaving me to solve this mess all by myself.

Very frustrating situation and for an hour I imagine PNTI will be handling out my COP , turns out all I got was a refund from PNTI to save themselves on their crappy service. It was a very big mistake I trusted them in handling my B/T COP processing stuff - didn't even get a full fucking refund from them (450 PHP) anyway at least I got the TCRHOA and an endorsement letter.

No use now in being furious by PNTI's backing out (thought as much as i wanted it). What I need now is results to get BT COP document - and FAST . I immediately made haste and boarded a jeepney enroute to MARINA in Kalaw street, lucky for me it was just two clicks away from PNTI and got there in less than 10 minutes. Ran inside MARINA office and approached the security guard and asked where can I process the "COP expedite". Mr Security Guard was helpful (and useful) enough to point me on the right direction and gave me a blue form for the COP.

On the seventh floor of MARINA Office, I was doing again the same scenario on what I did back to get my MARINA COP documents - sitting my fat ass again for a couple of hours waiting to submit these documents. Seriously I was not very happy on how things turned out for me and the only thing good about this was that this time I get the documents on the same day. Everything else is a scam and obvious extortion (government sponsored felony on my perception). As anticipated , yet again my wallet was pillage by MARINA and 400 PHP was immediately blown off in just paying for the processing fee of BT COP, another 25 pesos for the so called rental for a some sort of attire , another 10 pesos for the brown folder and another 25 PHP for the so called "documentary stamp" that is similar and no different from the stamp used in snail mail's.

At 3pm I finally got my BT COP document and headed back home.

The 7th Floor of Marina office handles "expedite" document issues, "Expedite" doesn't necessary mean they're cheap. Expect this department is going to burn a big hole on a sailors wallet. Only good thing about this is that the release of documents is the same day.

BUYER'S BEWARE

My complaint about PNTI is that despite this document has been already processed way back last April 01 2014 and being given a specific deadline of 40 working days, PNTI hasn't lived on its promise of processing these documents on schedule and charging twice as much as MARINA charges in exchange of getting a so called "hassle free" COP documents, turns out I'm paying double on PNTI and receiving double the problems, what kind of quality service is that ??? I can't imagine the sense of giving them 450 PHP on a single COP document (MARINA charges 250 PHP per document) and receiving a much worse service than MARINA gives , on top of that - in the end they ditched me out and said that I have to process my BTU / BTR myself ! . If I have known earlier that this would be my situation - it makes me wish that I should have went to MARINA instead and should have never sought their help in the first place

People shouldn't be fooled on PNTI's tempting offer of hassle free processing of COP documents, their advertisement is plain rubbish. Their service definitely sucks   and the only difference from them and MARINA's plagued service is that I don't get to sit in a chair for nearly 11 hours enduring the long queue lines - beyond that I couldn't recommend PNTI in handling COP documents at all. I'd be better off getting a bad service in MARINA than a "worst" service in PNTI.

Don't get me wrong , PNTI doesn't make the same mistakes MARINA does , instead their making new ones. Damn fucking training centres !!!

In other news….

Going thru on recording some Philippine TV shows, purpose of which is that in case that I might be needing some "pinoy" multimedia entertainment during my stay onboard Conti Greenland, I would easily pick out and play these recorded TV shows. Most of the recordings will be TV news though some records will be on lifestyle magazine TV shows etc., anything that will be entertaining.

Also in response to security issue (not to repeat the mistake I made in cape tallin), This data will not be stored on any portable hard drives that I'd be bringing and will be just solely put on my HP laptop. This may sound greedy and cruel to some extent but it would be the best course of action if ever I encounter assholes on Conti Greenland, (and on any ship after this) and of course aside from restrictions on data , Any materials that might be found (or will be) useful will not be shared to any crew whatsoever -  no exemptions.

Rule of the thumb when going to work on a ship is that there is no such thing as right or wrong, The only thing important is a person's resolve on ideologies s/he believes in.

An advertisement i saw on the fifth floor of MARINA , not exactly sure if this is true of just another false advertisement 

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PILLAGER OF WALLETS

Yellow Fever Card (or more like inoculation cards) Cholera Inoculations is top most yellow card, In the middle below is my Yellow fever vaccine card and inner yellow card at the bottom is my typhoid fever vaccination card

It was a quick tour when I arrived in career a couple of days ago, My main purpose why I'm here is to return all the documents I borrowed from the company such as my medical certificate etc.,. Upon my arrival, I immediately went to the NAC counter to return my Seaman's book and SRC card so that they could process my contract in POEA. Afterwards I immediately went to the medical counter to give them back my medical certificate and ask information about these cholera inoculations (vaccine) , They gave me a referral form to the same clinic I got my typhoid fever inoculations. Guess I'd be visiting again Jacob's Ladder Immunization Centre.

Next thing I did after going to the medical booth was go to the TESDA booth (also called "Mrs Teri's" booth). It was only a quick stop, Only showed my MARLIN's English test results and MARINA COP documents. A few minutes later she told me aside from getting the original document, I should go back to MARINA and get the "Certified True (photo)copy" of this MARINA COP.  After that I took off and went home.

The following day, I went to the MARINA (maritime industry authority) office, This time I didn't bother waking up very early. I just went on the normal business hours and directly went ahead on the 6th floor STCW department, It only took me a couple of minutes to get this photocop….errrr Certified true copy to be stamped. Despite the much easier task compared to getting the actual MARINA COP Document, (which I didn't have to go to the long line of waiting 11 plus hours)  Getting the "certified true (photo)copy" was not definitely cheap. In fact it's much more expensive on having these Photocopy papers being stamped by blue colour ink and can't figure why it's that expensive.

Huge numbers of sailor flock Kalaw street

Last year when TESDA was still running the show on processing C.O.C. papers , they don't charge that much. It was just basically 50 Php getting a photocopy of COC  document stamped , and only a single Photocopy is needed - the only problem I had with TESDA was that it's office was very far from manila. Now when MARINA suddenly took running the show in C.O.C documents (now called marina COP) , things went in on nasty turn. Now marina charges double (100 Php each) and four (photo)copies are now needed , amounting to 400 Php and this excludes some "extra fee's" that they charge you with like for example the fee for  "stamping" the photocopy paper alone(which is 100 PHP). Overall the cost of getting a "Certified true (photo) copy" exceeded 1000 percent (ten times, tenfold whatever you call it) from the original cost when TESDA was still in charge. In reality a person should not only consider the cost of the document alone, he / she will have to consider as well the personal expenses like transportation cost and food. Point here is that expect that MARINA will be pillaging a sailors wallet as much as 800 Php.

Seriously , If I had seen that this would be the scenario, It makes me wish that TESDA should have been the one handling this affairs rather than MARINA.

A few days later……..

The Clinic Where i got all my Vaccines

Wasn't able to attend to the cholera inoculations , given that there are some matters back home that I have to attend with like dad's upcoming hip bone surgery. Fortunately dad's still hasn't had his surgery yet and the government hospital (Amang rodriguez general hospital), refuse to take him in for two reasons. One is that if dad gets confined now, there a possibility that he might catch some hospital induced pneumonia and second reason is that all hospital beds in the orthopaedic is fully occupied - no room for dad to stay.

Anyway after a few days, I manage to finally get the inoculations on Jacobs ladder clinic, On my surprise I was only expecting a one-time visit but it turns out that Cholera Vaccines are given by two doses (actually three, but company says its only two). So in other words I have to go back again to career ship management and get another referral form from them and then go back again to get the second dosage vaccine.

For the news going on around the house….

As what you see on the pic, Diabetics need a constant shots of these to stay alive, not exactly a cure but more of a remedy to stay alive and away from the "long dirt nap"

For the moment Mom's health is slowly deteriorating and it is in rough estimate that maybe at least a year or less (probably 6 to 3 months), Mom is going to be headed for dialysis. For now I cannot determine exactly which is the culprit on mom recent health deterioration, given that no laboratory test have been made yet in her blood these past few months. The only hint we got around here is that the last test made on her creatinine level are of 700 ( 500 is the creatinine number were a person needs to be hooked up on the machine), in other words mom is already a candidate for kidney dialysis. From my observation mom is suffering from severe vertigo (dizziness) and vomits every few hours after meals, I cannot determine if this is caused by her diabetes or over dosage of insulin. Meds are totally ineffective and from my observation worsen her health state

What I do know is that moms health has been not very well for more than two weeks now. For the moment the only conclusion I could tell is that I'm going to observe her more and see if mom needs to be confined in a real hospital.

My best rough estimate that if this continues, mom might succumb to dialysis a year or within 6 months after this entry (most likely within 3 months). Earlier my rough estimates were at least 3 to 5 years before mom would reach dialysis , but on what I'm seeing now it could be less than a year.

For dad's case, It seems that he may not go in the operating table anytime soon. Recent test on him showed that dad has a heart problem (enlargement of the heart) on ECG test, This maybe the cause of his dragging problem several years ago about high blood pressure. To add more why he is still not confined yet is about the government hospitals staff's ineffectiveness on handling patients, the staff there are just simply cold, rude bastards who don't give a shit (or value)on human lives.

For the house situation, I could just plainly say that things have been very difficult these past few months, both in between the mood of people here and daily house chores.

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THINGS THAT I DON’T KNOW

Problem with Career Ship Management is that they are always never specific on the objectives that I should take first and as expected they will inform me on a late basis, such as what happened last Thursday were I was informed yet again that I have to take these some sort of cholera inoculation tablets, and report ASAP on the medical counter. The thing that annoys me is that they have the full two weeks to inform me about this and they did not even bother to give me at least any hints that I should take this requirement and only informed me on the last moment. They should cut that habit of surprising their employees.

Anyway in other news, Claiming the MARINA COP II-4 / II-5 (TESDA COC) wasn't that big deal as it was when I was applying for it (posted on my previous journal entry) and the best part is that I don’t have to wake up on a very early time just to get those two pieces of paper. I went there at about 8:30am on the sixth floor of MARINA Building and just presented my claim stub to the "releasing" booth , Incidentally when I was giving the stub I saw the Liaison Officer of Seafarers Shipping Company (a sister / parent company of Sea cap shipping) arguing on the staff in the booth. I didn't pay attention on what they were arguing with , and never cared about it, I just recognized the face of the guy and never thought I'd see him here.

After a few minutes , my name was called and I was handed out two MARINA COP Certificates ( II-4 and II-5 ) . Strangely enough Certificate II-4 is just a carbon copy of the old TESDA COC, the only difference is only a few minor cosmetically changes like no expiration date and the word "Certificate of Competency" is removed - beyond that everything else is the same shebang, down to the last letter.  Now for the II-5 Certificate, I'm not exactly sure what this is for and what is written here says "navigation cargo handling and stowage controlling the operation of the ship and care for persons on board maintenance and repair" and "Able Seafarer Deck" in the capacity. Maybe I'd find out on the latter ?

On the far left side is the old TESDA COC document middle and far right is the new document replacement called MARINA COP, Seriously the changes are just only cosmetical as what is shown on this picture

Since it was around 9am to 9:30, and plenty of time, I dropped by on PNTI to claim another COP certificate ( BTU / BTR COP). My receipt indicates that it was filed on April 1st and if my estimate is correct on what they say about a 30 working day processing , it should be out by now on June 2nd. Walked my way from Kalaw to intramurous to PNTI just to get the COP certificate (and save money) . Unfortunately to my dismay when I arrived there I found out that Certificates made on April 1st hasn't arrived yet. What's bad was that the bitchy staff didn’t even bother to look on the receipt I had and said hastily that they don’t have COP's yet, didn’t even tell why they don’t have it yet.

What a total rude son of a bitch !!! I went outside PNTI to verify by calling their  landline phone from a pay phone nearby,  to know exactly why the hell they haven't finished it yet. Good thing that the bloke who answered the phone was polite enough to give an explanation, Apparently from what I heard on the chap , he said that there was a delay and that applications and they haven't received yet the delivery from MARINA, and rough estimate is that I might get the BTU / BTR COP by end of June.

Wasn't able to secure the BTU / BTR COP and heat temperature is becoming worst, I went to AMOSUP building to chill myself out and of course at the same time inquire or get the AMOSUP Union Card. Getting the AMOSUP card is a low priority and little "Strategic importance" compared to other documents, I decided to test it out and give it a try. After all I'm just visiting AMOSUP building to avoid the extreme heat of the environment and had a whole lot of time.

The anomaly on my Seaman's book 

Getting an AMOSUP card isn't really that difficult, Just present any photocopies (or either one) of the following documents like seaman's book, certificate of employment or even an employment contract - anything that proves that you sailed on a ship that is sponsored (or at least recognized by AMOSUP Union). In my case specifically I present to the small booth there my photo copies of my seaman's book page one and two. To my surprise when my Seaman's book was inspected it revealed that the entries that was put there were wrong, to my dismay my disembarkation date written was march 05, 2013 (it was supposedly dated march 06, 2014). I didn’t notice that there was an error on my seaman's book , up only until now when I was applying for a AMOSUP seaman's union card that I found out. As a backup plan , I showed my Sea Service Certificate coming from Career Ship Management to prove my disembarkation date is March 05 2014. It was approved and an hour later , AMOSUP Seaman's Union card was given to me.

AMOSUP Card along with freebie pens, Thanks AMOSUP for the pen thought it doesn't change anything on what i view on your organization that produces psychopath sailors

In other news …

AMOSUP Card VS my Starbucks card

When I arrived home, I took the opportunity of taking a look on my social security  via internet ( www.sss.gov.ph )and verify if Career Ship Management is paying my retirement fund or not ( be wary, some companies here don’t pay social security like Sulpicio Lines, etc. ), fortunately it checks out that they're paying and as a matter of fact they're paying generously well on my retirement fund, even better than Sea Cap Shipping. Anyway I'm thankful, that I had lived in time were internet is accessible, not like in the old days were people will have to go to so much trouble in going to a social security office to verify if a shipping company is conning its employee's.

Aside from checking out my retirement funds on the social security website, I also check out some information about this so called "Flexi Fund" Program which is geared specifically towards "OFW'S" (Overseas Filipino Workers) and from my understanding as a sailor , this is a program very similar (and to some extent superior ) to a "Provident Retirement benefit " given by AMOSUP Union for retiring sailors. I haven't taken in steps yet to enrol on this social security program , but I seriously express my interest towards this given that this might be more reliable than the perks given by AMOSUP.

"Flexi Fund" , maybe a low profile program compared to the "Provident Fund" . But when it comes to reliability and usability , My money is on the "Flexi Fund" . Government Retirement Plan ( Social Security Flexi fund) versus Private Retirement Plan (AMOSUP Provident Plan)

My Social Security Retirement Contributions as i saw on my Online Inquiry on the website, 2010 - 2011 is the lowest contributions , this was made during my time on Sea Cap Shipping Company. latest contributions were made by Career Ship Management , good thing they're generous

"Certified True Copy" actually means a Photocopy of the document stamped by a colored ink, May seem harmless but MARINA charges helpless sailors 100 Php per copy of this paper, twice the cost than what TESDA charges us for these Photocopies (only 50 PHP back then per copy).  they're totally ripping off filipino sailors here on these photo copies. Pictured here on the left is "Certified True Copy" , actual document on the right side

Can't imagine myself being ripped off 500 Php on my wallet for a simple four pieces of photocopy paper from Marina. (100 Php was the charge made by the sheila who stamped those four photocopies)