CF SHARP PREDICAMENT

 
If I had known sooner that I'd be In this predicament , I wouldn't have applied at all in CF Sharp in the first place, knowing that this company sucks. Now not only am I stuck and cannot pull out my papers and look for a job on another company , now as of the moment they are putting  me on hold with no guarantees of employment at all, they told me to wait for the whole month of May this time. Now where's the sense of justice on that eh ??!
 
Waiting for a whole month ? What the fuck !!! I'm not in the mood to wait for that long, given that they haven't even given me any assurance of employment in the first place - I haven't signed any contracts with them , nor even given me the details of the new bank for the payroll, so basically the only thing I have or their giving me is they're word (which is highly doubtful given on what they put me thru).  It excruciating for me in this situation to be "boxed" and powerless on what ugly offers they throw at me and had me waiting for almost two months now. It only shows here that in the maritime community in the Philippines that even established companies have their way of scheming and conning people, and what's more is that its more organized and legal (and lethal althoughter).
 
On this situation , I have made a few errors on my tactics.
 
1. Shouldn't have left Career Ship Management altogether knowing that this company has stability when it comes to employment and instead have opted to "Plan C" . Which meant to wait things out until the company have sorted itself out, Instead of looking for a job on a different Shipping Company. I should have chosen to look for work on a land based job , specifically in the call center, after all I haven't been in that environment in a while and wouldn't hurt if I paid a little visit on the BPO.
2. Second Work Tactic error I had made is that I shouldn't have left and surrendered my papers in CF Sharp that easily, Unknowingly that they have some sort of scheme. Obviously that I was not aware and took it all in good fate, and this is how I ended up with , stuck and trapped on a job offer that truly sucks
3. Should have think twice when they said something about a perk called "cash advance". As much as possible I should have avoided this perk .
4. Signing up a contract and even doing a medical PEME doesn't guarantee employment, It may lead a person to believe that it will be the case but remember that on the latter part,  the contract can still be changed and swapped to a much more lesser job offer. 
 
On the bright side, It Showed a few good results on this situation.
 
1. A "sponsor" (backer) is no longer needed now when I look for a job as a sailor, in the old days during my deck cadet years or even post deck cadet, a backer is mandatory on my employment tactics. (Two factors that affected this was I already had a working experience and that my U.S. Visa is still functional till April 2018)
2. Having to change companies means me having truly free of "influences" and making me do things I really want. Unfortunately it has a downside , Those "influences" are responsible for protecting me on my previous work, and without it basically , I'm vulnerable to any schemes and plot a shipping company has against me.
 
My younger sister tells me to play it cool and wait for a month before I do any plans or at least given them a month as what they say. After all one month is reasonable enough. Beyond that she says , I'm free to take any action that I see fit.

NEW SITE FOR MARINA COP

 

 

Wasn't exactly in the mood to do anything after the disheartening news. I'm not even on the mood to get an NBI certificate, - but I need to get one today as I already put in on the online appointment ahead. The biggest and most hassle of all was online payment system which you have to pay on some collection company and show them first the printout of the appointment. Have no idea why government agencies opt to this kind of system but this was the most hassle part in getting an NBI clearance. Incidentally on that day the NBI server was down and I had to wait until noon for me to make the payment.

 

Once the payment has been made , everything was straightforward and took me only at least 35 minutes for the long line - after that I got my NBI clearance.

 

A few days later …..

 

Recently there has been a new site to get COP documents in Marina, before it was just only the main building in T.M. Kalaw. The new site as what I saw in the MARINA official website was inside the walled intramuros compound, inside AMOSUP Building. I researched more info on some Facebook groups and said that getting COP documents there would be less hassle that it was in T.M. Kalaw. So I tried it out and set an online appointment, hopeful that a hassle free document process will take place. Thankfully they were right and did not fail my expectation.

 

My schedule which I fed to the MARINA website is on April 26, 2016 at around 4pm in the afternoon. I arrived earlier at around 11am given that I had to get some documents from my employer ,specifically my old BT COP certificate and photocopied it. Location of the building according to the address was the new AMOSUP building which is just across the street, the very same building on which if I recall is WES located (walk in exam schedule i.e. licensure exams ). The third floor is were MARINA COP satellite office is located.

 

Basically the MARINA COP satellite office is less crowded that its Main office counterpart, roughly on my estimate there are only less than 30 people on the floor compared to the main office which has about hundreds if not thousands of people in the waiting line alone and have to wait in line as early as 2am in the morning. Hopefully MARINA COP Satellite office shows the best of what this government agency has to offer. Aircon, wide and spacious floor space, chairs for the people who wait on the long line, and best of all features is the same day processing which I got my rPSCRB COP in exactly just an hour.

 

For the people reading this. MARINA Satellite office has four steps in getting the COP certificate.

 

Step 1 , Basically just approach the counter and show the printout of the online application form. The bloke here just tells me to write my name and sign on the logbook.

 

Step 2. Evaluator, show the appropriate documents needed for the COP . Different types of paper documents for different types of COP. On my case here is the documents I showed for the rPSCRB COP

 

Proficiency in Survival Craft and Rescue Boat (PSCRB)

1. Certified True Copy of Training Completion and Records of Assessment (TCROA) in PSCRB , Original Documents. On my case it was an just an email printout form given to me by PMMA training center.

2. Certified True Copy of Enrollment Report. Translation - original enrollment slip you filled up in the training center which you enrolled for the training . Basically number 1 and 2 are the same and inter-changeable. 

3. rPSCRB Training Certificate, Both original and Photocopy 

4. Certificate of Sea service with company dry seal (in MARINA prescribed form). Can be get from the previous shipping or current company. 

5. Basic Safety Training/Basic Training COP , Both original and photocopy of the certificate

6. Seafarers Identification Record Book (SIRB), Photocopy the first page and all the pages that has a Stamp.

7.Old PSCRB COP Certificate . ORIGINAL ONLY

8.Long Brown envelope. Protip: write your name on the back of the envelope so that MARINA cant resell it to the poor Filipino sailors who are languishing for COP at the main MARINA Office in T.M. Kalaw.

 

If a sailor is REALLY IN A HURRY, Bring these extra documents to convince MARINA. (Thankfully I'm not. )

1. Letter request

2. Certified True Copy of Valid Overseas and Employment Certificate

3. Certified True Copy of Employment Contract

4. Certified True Copy of Air Ticket/Flight Details

 

Step 3. Payment. Self-explanatory just hand out the money , Based on my experience 200 Php is the price for a COP alone but there are miscellaneous like another 25 Php for the stamp and another 25 something or so on the picture (in the Old MARINA building) . Overall just prepared at least 300 Php to cover everything for a single COP.

 

Step 4. Releasing. - In the old days MARINA takes up to at least a week to release the COP certificate, and a sailor has to go thru all the horror in the waiting line again just to get it. Thankfully in MARINA Satellite office , they manage to cut down the waiting time to at least 700 percent and release the COP certificate 30 minutes after you applied for it (same day).  

SOMETHING ABOUT CF SHARP

 

"The rich rule over the poor, the borrower is slave to the lender (proverbs 22:7)"

 

 

While I was busy recently on obtaining the rPSCRB certificate in PMMA training center , I immediately received an SMS message coming from CF Sharp telling me to report A.S.A.P. , the nature of the message didn’t gave a clear reason why and they only said it was urgent. I didn’t report immediately after the said training due to the lateness of the message during that time.

 

On April 18, in the morning I received a call from CF Sharp again and said that I should report immediately in the afternoon , as expected the call did not mention any details why I should report. When I get there in the afternoon , the details were divulge that I was being transferred to another principal called "northstar crew management co. ltd" (which I suspect is a lower paying job) and that all perks that they gave me as being a member to CPO will be rescinded , including the "cash advance" perk worth 200 U.S. Dollars, which I used to open up a BDO dollar account (their requirement) and for personal expenses like updating my rPSCRB.  They reason out that I was being transferred on the fact that the guy whom I'm going to replace extended his contract and it left me being displaced.

 

Frankly I'm not sure if this reason is true or not , but after they said that , I already suspect that something is going on and that they're "trapping" a crew. fortunately for them I fell right in the middle of it. I can’t pull out my papers because I simply owe them money , for short I'm totally in the mercy of those debts and have to bow on their will. On the Tactical side this is good tactic for ship owners and shipping companies that they can "reel in" on the crew they badly wanted by simply using their best principal as a front to attract an unsuspecting applicant , then give him all the perks and freebie's to earn their trust and make them suspect less. Later at the last moment to thicken the plot , the unsuspecting crew gets back stabbed by being transferred into to the lowest paying principal they have on the company on the last minute, saying that there's no vacancy at the moment and to add more insult to injury, tells the unsuspected crew that they have to replace all the perks and freebie he took because the principal he will be transferring doesn’t cover that perk. The crew could run away from the company and pull out his / her papers from the terrible offer but being told to replace all the expenses makes it a stopping factor for the crew to run. 

 

Tagalog translation:

 

(in tagalog, ang sistema ng kumpanya para makakuha ng crew eh gawin front muna nila ang pinakamaganda nilang principal , at pag nakakuha na sila ng crew eh pakukunin nila ito ng maraming benefits katulad ng "cash advance" etc. para di maghinala, sa huli bigla nila sasabihin at idadahilan eh walang vacany at kailangan ka nila ilipat sa pinamababa at panget na principal nila para makasakay kaagad , syempre di nila sasabihin na ganun ang lilipatan na principal at pandaggdag na insulto pa sa isang yamot na applicante eh sasabhin din na kailgan niya palitan lahat ng ginastos sa kanya dahil hindi inoffer ng nilipatan nya yung ganun benepisyo. Pwedeng mag pull out and crew ng papeles nya pero ang mag pipigil sa kanya eh sinabi na papalitan lahat ng ginastos sa kanya kaya pilit sya na tanggapin ang panget na principal. Sa Totoo lang kung hindi lang ako may utang ng cash advance sa kanila eh aalis ako at kukun in ko ang papeles ko , at bahala na sila na humanap ng O.S. na papatol sa ganyan sahod)

 

Going back , I told them I don’t have 200 U.S. Dollars right now , and it may take a while for me to return it and said that they may have some sort of plan that they can recover the cost from me.  They said there is and they will have a sort of underground talk on how they will deduct it on my salary on my new principal, since they don’t have direct influence on other principals.

 

Wasn’t happy on what I was told and got bounced back to the recruitment department , the more that added to my dissatisfaction was that I learned that of this so called  "NorthStar Crew Managementment"  has an office address from Myanmar which I suspect is an Asian company that pays a low salary. On the discussion I hid my dissatisfaction and played along on their game. They say that they will be reassigning me on a brand new ship - yeah right ! I heard that before years back. Even if the ship is as brand new as it got out of the shipyard as what they claim to be - it doesn't mean that I won't do work or BOSUN will not wake me up in the middle of the night to rig a pilot ladder - the question here is how much is the company willing to pay me for work done as an O.S. To add more insult to injury,  When I was an O.S. in Career Ship Management, NSB principal they are paying me 1,268 U.S. Dollars all in all , now here In CF Sharp NorthStar principal - they are only offering 1,000 U.S. Dollars - and I suspect it could be even lower since Recruitment Managers intended to over exaggerate details just to get the attention of an applicant. What a totally insulting offer !!! And to make it over the top is that I have been put again on the waiting list and told me to wait for a month for any announcement !!! I mean what the fuck !!! The reason why I left career ship management in the first place was because I had been put on hold for the list for the past 6 months and now here in CF Sharpe , they are again going to put me on hold for an estimated month yet again !!!!!!! GOD DAMNIT !!!!

 

I left the office on that day in a terrible disgusted manner, thinking what will be my next move to counter this. I can't change company knowing that I can't replace the money I borrowed immediately. Possibly there is no way I could escape and will have to tag along with them for now until I settle my debts.

 

Honestly If I knew this would have happened , I could have gone to Maersk, UPL , TSM , ALSTER , or any other on my list that offers a much better pay and I would have not under in any circumstances availed on the cash advance perk. 

 

Speaking of which this so called "contract changing" scheme is also common on land based OFW's specifically land base work in the middle east (to be more specific Kingdom of Saudi Arabia) where OFW sign up on the contract and to their dismay, to find out later when they arrive in KSA their previous contracts will be cancelled and be switched for a new contract which offers a lower pay.

 

Here in the Sea based job, it’s a different version but still the same , Only done in the Philippines and not on another country. Talk about exploitation !!

PMMA TRAINING CENTER

PDOS is obvious a seminar for any OFW's , both land based and sea based kind. Basically this seminar is not a big deal and if were not a requirement to get past airport security in NAIA , I wouldn't take this at all. In any case , PDOS basically is a seminar which tells the Do's and DON'Ts of travel - yes it's more like a travel guide stating what not to bring and how to act like don’t tell any BOMB jokes that you're a terrorist trying to blow up something , or bring any of the long list of prohibited items like radioactive materials, ammunition , guns , weapons etc. etc. list goes on…. Also the seminar tells OFW's to keep in mind not to act like an imbecile inside the airport (or while travelling) and be on the lookout on our local airports during arrival since lately it has been infested with syndicated crime. (bullet schemes, Open luggage's schemes , etc etc)

 

PDOS seminar in CF sharp is lenient compared to Career Ship Management were crew have to attend it on every contract or so , Here in CF Sharp it's probably just every two years, so probably I won't be attending this seminar again for a while.

 

PDOS seminar room is relatively small and entertaining, and mostly the attendees are composed of crew from passenger ships and not from cargo ships. Probably I surmise that CF Sharp company mostly does business in passenger ships and minors only in Cargo vessels. After PDOS seminar , the Anti-piracy soon followed in the afternoon.

 

Anti-piracy isn't exactly to be taken seriously in passenger ships , since there is a lot of crew there and there is a specific crew on a specific task - plus the passenger ship companies are more generous when it comes to adding armed security personnel compared to cargo ships. For cargo ships however it’s a different story, since companies here are always concerned on budget and are even budget conscious enough not to send armed guards to protect ships . Anyway Anti-piracy seminar basically is mostly composed of tactics and measures to keep any pirates at bay from not getting inside the ship until help arrives (usually from the military navies of different countries in the area). I'm not getting into the details on what the seminar discusses , and will mostly focus on what is the seminar itself. Anyway CF Sharpe Anti-Piracy seminar was just only a video film showing nothing more. Good thing that this seminar is only taken once on the whole stay of an employee to the company.

 

The following day …

 

As scheduled , I went to GMSI office early in the morning and await to be picked up by a mini bus. At about 7:30 am indeed there was a PMMA bus that came and fetched us to the PMMA training center. At about 8am we were already at the PMMA training center in north harbour. There's nothing much to say to the building in the north harbour and basically its old and dilapidated compared to other much more modern ambience on other training facilities, and frankly the old building looked more like cheaply retrofitted facility for PMMA. There's even hardly people going around  the entire building at all. We went to the class room at about 9am and it was basically a simple lecture with a quiz at the end of it, after that we were given a set of instruction for the practical the next day on what to bring and were will be the meeting place. Apparently the building here occupied by PMMA training center is mostly just built for lectures and class but no actual facilities used for the technical skills, so we have to be hauled off from manila all the way to the PMMA main training facility in San Narcisso, Zambales.  Given with the location disadvantage I had from Marikina to T.M. Kalaw at the time of meeting place (4am) , I had to set out early and left the house at about 8pm and wait there in Mcdonald's T.M. Kalaw till 4am. Well I could leave the house at a later time about 10pm which cuts the long waiting time but I'd lost the advantage of having to travel cheaper via LRTA (which closed 9pm) plus the fact that roads in manila from 10pm onwards aren't exactly safe on that time period.   

 

Waiting for 6 hours wasn't exactly that bad at all as long as there is a public wifi service, and good thing in T.M. kalaw area there's two sites that have a public WIFI. One is of course McDonalds and they don’t have any passwords at all to access the wifi there, the second is 7-11 store in U.N. avenue but unfortunately a WIFI user has to have a registered 7-11 card to access it. Best bet in the area is McDonalds. Anyway the only regret I had was that I didn’t brought along my tablet to access the WIFI and had to relay on cellphone alone to access the internet. Anyway being occupied on the internet had the six hours wait gone by in a flash and all before I knew it , most of my co-trainee had already arrived.

 

A small bus came in along with two other Vans and we boarded this vehicles for the 4 hour long ride to zambales. At exactly 8am we arrived in PMMA and had a small breakfast before riding again the vehicle to the lecture building. The lecture was very short just roughly an hour and then we wen t outside for the demonstration for the lifeboat . Weather wasn't cooperative with the excruciating hot weather and I quickly searched for a spot for a shade. After the demonstration we went back to the class room to change clothes since its soaking wet with sweat. At around 10am we had lunch given to us at the PMMA cafeteria and 30 mins later we boarded the service vehicles for the trip home.

 

During the wait , there was a PMMA collectible shop. Though the selection is not as extensive as the one I saw in the Philippine Military Academy Tourist booth in Baguio 10 years ago. It's still a functioning collectible shop. Some of my co-workers bought a few collectibles and I was asked why am I not buying one , I replied simply that I'm not a interested. Actually the real answer to that was that I  hate glorifying a school that produces sadistic sailors and patronizes militaristic culture on a purely civilian job, plus on the fact that they brainwash kids to think that their soldiers and everything to them that is not a soldier is inferior. I just simply hate all that bullshit glorifying militaristic propaganda PMMA feeds on the youth and other civilians alike. Anyway despite all my disdain in the school , I'm here simply on business and let not my personal hatred with the institution affect my agenda here, this is just purely business.     

 

The trip home was a very long one , another 4 hours from zambales to metro manila area. The service Van went close to the Munoz area ,and that’s when I decided that they could drop me off there. To be honest it was a big mistake for me to be in Muñoz area and walk my way towards cubao, and one good reason , it was already 3pm and the temperature is still a scorching 39 to 42 degrees Celsius. Walking during that time and temperature was a bad idea. As I walked my whole shirt was soaking wet with sweat and the same goes to the reserve shirts I had on my back pack. Anyway walking in these area after 16 to 13 years later feels kind of reminisce, of course there have been huge changes on the shops and overall structure of some of the places , but still I recognize the route and direction I'm walking.

 

At afternoon I went home and took a good rest for all that exhaustion from the walk and from the travel.

 

PMMA Training Center  

 

honestly the refresher course is basically a joke I could not see the wisdom behind it, for me this two day seminar is basically just a waste of time and money on Filipino sailors , not to mention profiteering of training centers and MARINA itself that uses STCW 2010 amendment as an excuse to hide their ulterior motive of making money.

 

So, what can I say about PMMA training center. First off is the place is a bit run down and dilapidated but there is a lot of potential on this training center if they have funding to renovate the place and applied the "open" business practice audacity like PNTC does, make it like a more modern feel - if they do that , I'm sure that PMMA Training Center would be very competitive in both providing both Maritime education and training and people from all over the maritime community will be flocking in to their Training center for the cheap, inexpensive training with COP certificate. One thing I noticed as well , and a major drag down is travel time to their technical training facility which is located inside the Philippine Merchant Marine Academy Campus in zambales, Takes roughly at least 4 hours to go there from manila and another 4 hours going back , without traffic. They should have put a large size vehicle like a BUS specifically as a means of transport for the trainee's, I suspect that they only reserve their bus to for their academy students and not trainee's for their training center.

 

To summarized overall, PMMA training center has a lot of unrealized (and untapped) potential if they would take the "training" business more seriously, if they do that government could be pocketing a large profit from this training center and not entirely relay on MARINA for profits coming from the Maritime community here, its safe, legal and totally beneficial to both parties (trainee's and government ). In the meantime PMMA training center is sufficient but not competitive on the facilities compared to private players like PNTC or Far east, or even perhaps AMOSUP.

 

 

PRO'S

*Since its Government Training Facility, training fees are cheap and half price (example rPSRCB in PNTC is 2800 PHP, PMMA training center is only 1,500 PHP)

 

*Provides freebie's like free COP certificates on training seminars, free breakfast and lunch for trainees.

 

*PMMA name is already an established and branded name in the maritime community in the Philippines

 

 

CONS

*Lacks adequate facilities like an Olympic size swimming pool, for trainee's (they should have built two, if they have the funds like in a private training center). Funny that it’s a naval academy and yet I don’t see any swimming pools around the campus ??

 

*travel time is horrible , 4 hours going to the Philippine Merchant Marine Academy Campus and another 4 hours going back to manila. Overall half the day is spent travelling.

 

*should have a full size bus for travel for their trainee's and to lessen the stress of travel like PNTC does. Which acts like a mobile advertising billboard to any would be trainees in the future.

 

*Lacks the audacity in Promoting and Advertising their training center , they should have at least have a booth in T.M. Kalaw area to promote their inexpensive training offers and promos. ZRC training center does that in aggressive advertising , PMMA Training center should copy this business tactic.

*people get intimidated hearing the word "PMMA" which is a notoriously infamous militaristic school with lots of violations on human rights. in the training center its different , totally civilian and just like attending classes in grade school 

  

 

BDO & NBI CLEARANCE

Like any other payroll system (both land based and overseas work), setting up an ATM account on a bank is equally important , as this is where the money will lead and be received by a sailors allotte. It depends of course on what bank will the shipping agency assign the sailor , the shipping company usually give a referral letter for the sailor to carry with so he can open an account to a specific bank.

 

On my case , I was planning to open an account today along with my sister and set up an account. It was easy opening an account on BDO and the receptionist who handled us was very entertaining and friendly , however despite the pleasantries the only one who could open a bank account is my sister and not me due to insufficient I'D's I had on that moment and due to sever hot weather I didn’t manage to get my social security I'd at the post office in the afternoon on the same day and had to set it back for tomorrow morning .

 

I got my SSS ID in the following early morning at Cainta Rizal Post office which is all the way far in the junction area avenue. The post office building of cainta is very much like a makeshift building in the middle of a dirt road and staff there is very much lazy and I had to wait till 10:00am for the Social Security mail. Now the question here is this , how come did my social security I'd ended up in a place like this ? I suspect that it's either the mailman was crapping on his job or that the address got confused when the social security staff was always contradicting me on my address last year when I applied for an SSS ID. In either case , My social security I'd didn’t arrived on my home address and it's been long overdue and ended up in the Post office. Good thing for me that I didn’t waited long to get my mail along with my I'd in the post office and immediately finished the whole deal within less than 15 mins.

 

On my way to the BDO , I was riding a jeepney when CF Sharp called and said something about me reporting back to CLINICOMED. Confused , I had to hurry all the way to MALATE, Manila coming from in the middle of CAINTA RIZAL just to check it out which I found out latter much to my annoyance that I only had to sign a paper to complete the medical paper. Thankfully despite the annoyance I was able to make it in time to the BDO bank to open up an account. Teller just handed out a couple of paper's after showing two valid I'd's (one primary I'D like SSS ID' etc. and another secondary I'D like for example PHIL-HEALTH ) which I had filled up and after submitting, I was told to retrieve the ATM cards by next week. Simple as that and I was off.

 

I went to the last part of my agenda which is to get and NBI clearance, frankly this is a low priority agenda but I had to get this anyway since its required by my company. I went to Robinson's mall to the NBI booth and much to my dismay the   so called "online" system the government has been bragging about for half a decade is still ineffective as ever. Despite the online booking, I still have to go thru the long line and what's worst was that there's a detour stop on the lower floor which I handles the payment - to simply put, its definitely NOT A ONE STOP SHOP like before. I got dismayed and left , since it’s a low priority agenda and had to rebook again.

PATCHING rPSCRB

Officially my PEME has not ended yet and I had to go all the way back to ClinicoMed just to sign a tiny bit of paper that I left behind - the troublesome MCA cert. As much as its annoying , I have to sign in on the paper personally just to "officially" clear me on PEME and have the clinic forward it to CF Sharp. After that I didn’t waste any time in hanging out in the clinic and went directly to CF Sharpe for further orders.

 

Went I got there , I was asked by "sir sherwin" if there is any training seminar I had my eye on . I replied that I don’t have anything yet for the moment and he said "good , if that’s the case - because I had something in mind, Don’t worry its cheap, legal and releases the certificate fast plus its comes with a free C.O.P. certificate" . "Sir Sherwin" got a piece of paper and wrote this ,

 

GREAT SEAS MARINERS TRAINING AND ASSESTMENT CENTER INC.

2nd floor, San Jose BLDG Paquita street corner Espana st. Sampaloc Manila City

Tel# +63 (02) 516 52 49

 

He said  "rPSCRB seminar training cost only 1,500 Php here , you won't have any problems at all here" . Before I left the CPO office , "sir sherwin" said that CPO crew get a free stuff as a perk , be sure to drop by on "Roda's" desk on the third floor to get your free stuff (which was actually a document holder). I got the free stuff before I left CF Sharp , and its kind of cool because it replaces my tattered makeshift document holder I had on my back pack . Enjoyed the look and said to myself "How come I didn’t get this kind of stuff from my previous employers ??".  Now the problem with this document holder is that it’s a bit bulky and heavy, I wonder on how will this turn out on my airport luggage ?

 

At about 1pm , I enrolled on the course  rPSCRB. From what I heard on the GSMTAACI , they don’t exactly offer this course and they referred me to an affiliate training centre called Philippine Merchant Marine Academy Training Centre. Personally I don’t mind the course and lecture part but I have no idea on how training goes for the zambales training site, and asking if we have to travel all the way there on that area. Anyway I guess I'd find out later on how it goes, for now the only reason why I'm interested in this ride along is because the course is cheap and its says on the promo that they have a free COP Certificate that comes along. The registrar said that I had to be in the GSMTAACI Bldg. in the morning of april 14, 2016 at exactly 7:30am.

 

Here is the picture of my enrollment form for the seminar. 

 

 

GETTING A SCHENGEN VFS STYLE

( C.P.O. means "Claus Peter Offen Tankschiffreederei" , which is a german company) 

 

For the moment "MCA" signing part on my medical is being put on temporarily hold for 24 hours , to attend on a more urgent matters like getting a Schengen Visa. CPO Crewing manager assured me that a liaison officer will be attending me and my co-worker "jayson" while were at the VFS Visa Company in Ecopark building in makati, In fact he said specifically that we don’t have to bring anything at all when we're going there and that the liaison Officer will be bring all the paper documents needed. For security purposes were also told that we shouldn’t bring any back packs or bags as well.

 

I came to Ecopark building very early since traffic in EDSA highway is very unpredictable and I had to be in VFS at exactly 10am. My co-worker "Jayson" arrived early as well because he lives far south like Cavite area. At first there was a bit of confusion given that there are two 7-11 stores nearby, I don’t exactly know which of the two is the actual meeting place. Good thing "Jayson"  clarified that it was the 7-11 store on the ground floor that was the meeting place for us and the liaison officer.  The Liaison Officer was very brief on his instruction and gave us our documents , he said he cannot accompany us inside with the security around and that only visa applicants are allowed inside.

 

Once inside it was the usual stuff like in any Visa application company (or embassy). Full of people minding their own business. Frankly European Visa is not strict when it comes to its applicants compared to the U.S. Embassy, Security checks are very light and very comfortable for any applicant. According to what our liaison officer told us we should proceed to the VIP processing section after going thru the I.D. picture booth. The I.D. picture booth was not exactly that "functional" as its wasn’t flashing when it took my picture , as a result I had the most embarrassing I.D. photo ever taken in my life, I literary looked like a retard version of Mr. Bean.

 

The VIP process section as I describe , is nothing more than a small lounge with snacks and a drink area with just only one attendant checking the documents. We only stayed a couple of minutes there but it was very comfortable , after that we proceeded to booth number 3 for the payment and after that we went on to booth number 6 for biometric data capture (actually it's just a finger print section). After that it concludes our Schengen Visa application, and we went outside to tell our liaison officer that were already finished with the Visa application. He told us that we had to wait a couple of days and he'd be carrying the documents we have back to the office. Based on what I read on the documents before we handed them to the liaison officer, it looks like that the Schengen visa I'm going to have is a bit inferior to the one's issued by Career Ship  Management. From what I read it’s a 3 day transit type visa compared to before that it’s a thirty day one , anyway a Schengen Visa is still a Schengen Visa.

 

"Jayson" and I rode a jeep and headed west direction towards the main EDSA highway, After that we parted ways since I'm going to back to my house and him on NAIA terminal 3 to fetch a relative.

 

On Cubao, I took the change in getting some cash by exchanging my 100 U.S.D. left on my wallet to the foreign exchange booth. I got from the exchange on that day is 4,585 PHP and will use the money to patch up my PSCRB seminar cert.

 

 

CLEARING CLINICOMED

 

 

Joenar wasn’t exactly happy to find out that I ended up on another principal instead of going directly to Vladimir Reyes. The problem here is that the miscommunication that happened between me and the security guard ended up me going to the recruitment office rather than directly to the 2nd floor office. By the time I realize something was going wrong , the CPO principal operations manager already got his hands on my paper and I could no longer pull it out and give it to Vladimir Reyes. Anyway I'm partly to blame on that part and had no excuses on it.

 

As soon as I handed over my papers to the CPO Operations Manager , I was immediately put to the CPO crewing manager and had been given a task to clear the medical exam A.S.A.P. , On the same day , I spent the time searching for the location of this so called "CLINICOMED" clinic somewhere in malate area Manila. The only clue I got was that the rough sketch of the place, that it was near "aristocrats" restaurant , Malate Church and Malate high school. Took me sometime to finally locate it and saw that it was on the same building as "BAHIA" shipping agency is. Unfortunately on my search I had to walk starting from T.M. Kalaw all the way to Quirino Area to search the clinic.

 

The following day , I made the usual preparations like any other medical related exam I had before like prepare my previous chest x-ray plates, go on fasting etc. Unfortunately for me I wasn’t able to get a stool sample. I took the LRTA -2 train in the morning and rode a jeep going to T.M. Kalaw street, after that I walked all the way to the location of the clinic

 

I entered "CLINICOMED" on the third floor , The place was decent and not that all hectic compared to previous medical clinics I had been before, and the best part of it was that they had a free Wi-Fi for their patients which made the waiting time for me to be nonexistent. Going to the registration area was not a problem and the staff was courteous and friendly, I did have a minor problem on the "mug shot" part in the registration given that my name was very long and had to squeeze writing it to the small whiteboard plaque.

 

Basically when I looked on the med test that I would go thru , I saw that ECG and Ultrasound diagnostic was not part of the PEME. Good for me in the sense that they won't detect any heart problems for me in case I have a minor electrolyte imbalance (i.e. Dehydration). The test was plainly the basics. On the exam , the thing I have to worry about is the X-ray part here. Apparently since the PEME is based on the MCA-UK kind of exam ,Meaning only x-rays 1 year and up will be recognized as for comparison and as for me, good thing for me I had around both my 2012 chest x-ray plate and march 2015 plates, that can be used for comparison. For the dental , I asked the dentist directly if there was any problem at all on my teeth , he gave me a direct answer that there is nothing to worried about.

 

The following day , I went back to CLINICOMED to check if there was any problems during my medical exam - plus I also have to recover the important chest X-Ray plates and submit my stool sample (poop sample). On the reception, the receptionist told me to see a doctor for the medical results. Upon entering and letting the doctor read my medical , she said that I have pending medical exams, namely Urinalysis needs to be repeated because trace amounts of "albumin" , I.Q. Test results was low and lastly is submission of poop sample to the laboratory. The latter was very easy and just submitted my poop to the lab, The I.Q. test was moderate and just plainly copy the answers on the master sheet and  I'm all set. The repeat urinalysis took me sometime to clear because I found out that retaking that exam cost 150 PHP

 

When the first I heard that retaking has a cost , Immediately went to the cashier and asked how much would it cost. She said it will cost me another 150 PHP on my wallet, being informed I immediately grabbed my wallet and checked my pocket to check if I had some money left for it. Incidentally I had exactly the money needed - not a peso less and not a peso more . However if I did paid the retake of the exam , it would mean for me that I have to walk all the way from malate church to marikina sta elena, as it will leave me penniless literary. I immediately sent an SMS to my sister to advise me on the situation and ask help as well. Her reply on the SMS was this , Proceed to use my money to retake the urinalysis exam and she will send me 200 PHP via money transfer by noon to cover my expenses. I took the urinalysis exam and waited until 1pm for the test results. Passing that means that there are no more pending sections on my PEME and that I'm already "fit to work" category. According to my sister passing the urinalysis means I have to piss first then drinks (or more like drown) lots of water before taking again the urinalysis.

 

Aside from that , I also recovered my chest x ray plate from CLINICOMED

 

At about 11 am , I received an SMS that from my sister that she had wired transfer  the reserve money I needed. I had simply had to find the nearest wire transfer money store (like western union) to collect the money. After 30 mins I had got the money and had to wait until

 

Upon success , I went to CF Sharp office to report for the contract signing and general info about the allotment forms, From what learned CF Sharp provide three allottee slots for the sailors relatives and their salary / payroll system is electronic based and relays heavily on Debit / visa cards. To put it simply - they rarely hand out money onboard the ships and sailors have to check their money via nearest ATM once they reach shore (implying that shore leave is essential to keep the money checked). I asked the crewing manager on why this is the case, he said that there was an incident involving piracy and to avoid the crew from getting robe (at least in the physical way) they devised the money to be in electronic form e.i. in ATM / Debit Cards. Anyway Aside from two allottement ATM's I have to open, The crewing assistant also said that I'm required to open a DOLLAR account for this in BDO bank to which my salary will be put there once I'm inside the ship. According to what I heard the minimum maintaining balance of the BDO dollar account is 100 U.S. dollars. Obviously I don’t have a hundred dollars right now and the management said that I could get a cash advance to lend me the money to open up that account.

 

On the Office booth, it was kind of the management to let me have a cash advance of about 200 U.S.D. and I took the offer because of two reasons. One is of course to open a U.S. Dollar account for payroll uses , the second reason was that I need the money to patch up for the expired documents I had which is PSCRB (now will be patched to be rPSCRB). Aside from the discussion about rPSCRB and BDO bank forms , another thing that was discussed was that I had to renew my Schengen visa (European visa and It's imperative to renew this A.S.A.P according to the crewing assistant) , Get a schedule for their in-house which is anti-piracy and PDOS and Some minor documents I had to get like NBI certificate and Phil- health.

 

For now my next objective is to get a Netherlands Schengen Visa , on eco plaza makati city.

 

 

BDO ATM / DEBIT CARD Terms and Conditions pictures I took in CF sharp (FOR PUBLIC KNOWLEDGE)

 

       

JOB HUNTING SORTIE

On the morning of March 28th , I set out to look for a job. Travelling is less costly (and less stressful) from marikina going to intramurous manila than marikina going to Evangelista makati. So I'm at least comfortable , I had already done a lot of thinking a few days back and I'm already sick and tired of deliberating over and over again on whether I should look for work or not after being put on holding status for 5 months now. That long wait for me is already justifiable enough to do some action rather than wait, Besides both options for me are uncertain. Uncertain if I could get a job and uncertain that my current company will ever call back at all. Frankly despite my advances in the maritime career , I don’t have the self-confidence as I had on a land based job (specifically BPO kind of work) , Probably because majority of the attempts I made in the past was met with disappointments and disasters.

 

My intent date to look for work was on the 28th but due to suffering a bad cold and cough, I had to postpone my sortie for 48 hours, until my health improves. On Wednesday , My health seemed to be ok and went to intramurous Manila. I came to the company at around 10:00 and I was literary a walk in applicant. Due to my little mistake with the guard (actually a misunderstanding which I will later apologize to my contact / sponsor there) I was put on a different principal that the one I was intently aiming at. As a result I had to do a longer version of the application process than the shorter one, In any case I went on the process of being interviewed repeatedly and taking two types of computer related exam, plus the trouble of being checked out for background checks. It did not pose any problems but however it took me a while to achieve my objective.

 

After achieving the Objectives. Some of the staff on the company asked me that if it's possible for me to be mobilized within 24 hours given that I had a U.S. Visa, I told them it's not exactly possible on the fact that there are a lot of things to consider first. I enumerated first that I don’t exactly have my passport yet and it's still on the current possession of my current company , aside from that I'm not sure if some of the documents I had are still valid , plus even if both of these are ok, I still had to deal with the medical clinic along with some other paper works like allotment slip on banks. So basically my answer was a big no , but I said it in a gentle way. The last part on my sortie was I had to talk with the operations manager which asked me a few questions, incidentally the room was a bit dimmer and the guy was creepy and scary kind of guy. Which the funny part of it was that the interview looked more of like an interrogation.

 

Before my sortie ends I was ordered by the to retrieve two things. One is the evaluation report and the other was sea service certificate (which is equivalent to "certificate of employment" document on any land based job).

 

The following day I went to Career Ship management, I wasn't comfortable in telling the company that I'd be leaving but of course there is no other option and I have to bid farewell to them. When I arrived I went directly to Captain Galang the operations manager and said my predicament. Captain Galang was very professional and friendly on our discussion certainly a real example of a good superintendent , Compared to other superintendents that I know from the past who are nothing more than a bunch of nasty sons of bitches. Captain Galang was very helpful and even pointed me on the right direction on where I would claim my documents and even put on a good word to the company I'm transferring that I'm scheduled to be promoted to A.B.

 

I recovered the few remaining documents they have in possession except the Certificate of sea service which I will recover by Monday. After that I'd be directly  submitting it to the company I'm transferring at. As for the confidential / evaluation report , It looks like that I won't be getting a copy of it at all because of some paper work problems from the principal (apparently they were lazy on the paper work).

 

On my way home, at the bus. I received a text and apparently this came from one of my most recent haters on my blog , "Chris rematotot" errr "Christian Remoto" . Anyway the text as usual is nothing but full of shit just like as his name is. Apparently even threatens me to report my blog to the company which I doubt because guys like him don’t have any balls, besides good luck to him if he ever does that, and he can give my regards to the crewing manager - more importantly I haven't heard of any sailor who got reprimanded because he was maintaining a blog. In any case it only shows proof on how stupid and idiotic this so sailor called "Christian Remoto" , can he think of something else that is original ??!! And if he's going to take vengeance, can he please hurry it up because I'm getting bored with all his talk but no action . He can just plainly kiss my ass !!! 

 

Anyway there isn't that much to expect on that stupid old Mongoloid aside from harassing people both on the internet and in real life , but from what I heard being dumb and stupid can be genetically inherited and let's hope that it won't be passed down to his children or else society will be again in burden for adding numbers to the mongoloid populace. Overall this reflects on how poorly civilized Filipino sailors are - that they stalk people. Anyway based on his SMS message he apparently comes from of the provinces, which is not surprising on the fact that most people there are savages and lack urban manners compared to people who came from metro manila area and Makati (or at least G.M.A. i.e. greater manila area) . I ask myself and wonder how jebsen even hired an idiotic savage like him ? Probably jebsen management is crapping out on their job and forgot to screen out people like these ? Or  maybe they have lowered their employment standards to pathetic levels. 

 

MESSAGE FROM A FRIEND

A week before Easter Sunday, I had a chat with my friend and college classmate on Face book and had a chat about my predicament. On the chat he told me that he sent an email to his crewing manager and I had to look for some guy named "Vladimir Reyes" of CF Sharpe Shipping Company. Obviously for me I see this was an invitation to join CF Sharpe's Band wagon and at the same time a guarantee that my friend will act as my sponsor (backer). According to my friend  he already sent an email to this crewing manager , something about "letter of recommendation" kind of stuff, so I won't have problems getting inside and probably they will be expecting me. Anyway It eases my mind that my friend would back me up and for the least I wouldn't have to think that looking for a job on that company will not end up me being chased out on the shipping office - (as what happened to me a lot times during my deck cadet years).

 

Given with this information (and invitation), I considered getting a job in CF Sharpe a top priority right now and had set aside other agenda's I have at the moment until I get some results from this , whether it’s positive or not. I already made preparations in securing a chest x-ray film copy for later use if in case things went well , and to add more effect on the "first impression" I also took a haircut so I don’t get on the wrong foot with crewing manager in case he has a nasty habit. Believe it or not first impressions last in looking for a job particularly in the shipping community.

 

For now I'm not totally uncertain in looking for a job as a sailor compared to years ago when I was still a deck cadet transitioning to an O.S. . Main reason is because of the fact that I'm experienced now and that my documents have more qualifications in it that it was years back, so overall estimate is that qualifications for an "ordinary seaman" won't be a problem for me once I get inside CF Sharpe's office at least on my perspective. I remember a few years back that I was marooned here in the Philippines by my former company and had little or no money at all on that time, to make it worst my employment experience was one a year and I had no license nor even have a U.S. Visa. Practically my employment situation at that time was very grim. The only thing good about my situation was I do not heavily relay economically on the maritime / shipping industry and had other skills. Now years later , I'm better off and could say that I'm at least "have something" on my work as a sailor.