MARINA-7 gets new home

CEBU, Philippines — After 42 years of leasing an office space and transferring from one place to another, the Maritime Industry Authority (MARINA) in Central Visayas finally has its own home on a 2,000-square meter province-owned lot in Sudlon, Lahug, Cebu City.

MARINA Administrator Rey Leonardo Guerrero, Deputy Administrator for Operations Nannette Dinopol, Cebu Governor Hilario Davide III, Angkla Party-list Representative Jesulito Manalo, MARINA-7 Regional Director Jose Venancio Vero Jr. and other officials yesterday led the unveiling of the marker and inauguration of the four-story building.

“We look forward to providing our seafarers with a bigger and more comfortable venue for the certification needs and to other clients in the shipping and the shipbuilding industry,” said Vero in his welcome address.

Vero, however, said that at the moment MARINA-7 is still holding office at the Qimonda IT Center Complex in North Reclamation Area in Cebu City until the formal turnover of the new building.

Guerrero considered yesterday’s occasion as another milestone in the maritime industry in Region 7 and the new building is a symbol of the strong partnership of the Province of Cebu, the MARINA, and the Angkla Party-list.

He pointed out that Cebu is the hub of maritime industry in central Philippines as can be seen on the number of ships and how busy is the Cebu port.

“It is only fitting that we have this satellite office under Region 7 and have their own buildings to be able to better serve our maritime professionals here,” Guerrero said.

Guerrero calls on the people of Region 7 to take advantage and to access the services of MARINA.

“As a token of our appreciation and gratitude, we, at MARINA pledge to properly maintain this building and to make good use of it to better serve our constituents, our maritime professionals here in Cebu and in Central Visayas,” Guerrero said.

Along with the new facilities, MARINA intends to streamline its methods and procedures to capacitate their workers and to computerize information systems, and to make services accessible and more convenient for stakeholders and to seafarers.

Davide said the provincial government is happy to help and willingly acceded to the request of Manalo.

“This building was made possible not by myself but by cooperation of a lot of people seeing a vision of what the maritime industry can be and what it can do to contribute the nation building,” said Manalo in his message.

Manalo spearheaded the inception of the infrastructure project for a MARINA Regional Processing Center in Cebu Province under a "Contract of Usufruct" between the Province of Cebu and MARINA on December 2015.

The Cebu provincial government granted a 50-year usufruct for a 2,000-square meter lot on which MARINA built its own building, the first MARINA regional office to be built in the country, and is renewable for another 50 years “subject to agreement of both parties.”

MARINA spent P60 million to construct the building while Manalo committed to give P20 million for its improvement.

Manalo said the idea came when he visited MARINA office in Iloilo where he saw students sitting down on the stairs, lining up, no place to sit and to walk around.

“The maritime sector contributes 5.8-billion US dollars to our economy and our seafarers or future seafarers do not even have a place to go and get their certification, so I said something is wrong,” Manalo said.

Manalo said he has been a sort of a lonely voice in Congress in 2013 but when he begun the crusade, people listen and now the maritime sector has been introduced to Congress where everyone in Congress is aware of their potential.

“Every one of them are now aware that the maritime sector can be modernized, our vessels can be modernized, it can be classified, it can ensure safety, so these are the discussion that we now have,” he said.

Manalo also believes that if the government and the private sector talk together, the ideas that will benefit all would come out.

He is pushing MARINA to lead the country towards economic progress now only function as an office that will give certification.

“This is indeed a building built by people working together and take pride of being able to work with you and I will continue to work with you in my capacity as lawmaker or maybe when the time comes that I will be in the private sector, I will remain working with you and working with these building, I will call the building of people who believe in a vision that we can be a maritime nation, that we can make and take advantage of what already have and the potential can be reaped by our next generation of seafarers, shipbuilders, shipowners and many more who will benefit from an industry such as this,” Manalo said. — FPL (FREEMAN)