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)