Pinoy is chair of UN panel on sea safety

The Philippines’ representative was elected chairman of the International Maritime Organization (IMO) Maritime Safety Committee (MSC), according to an embassy report from London.

The Philippine Embassy in London reported to the Department of Foreign Affairs that First Secretary and Consul Neil Ferrer was elected chairman for 2007 and 2008, at elections held during MSC’s 83rd session in Copenhagen last month.

Ferrer is the first Filipino and Asian diplomat to be elected IMO/MSC chairman since IMO’s inception in January 1959.

IMO is a United Nations agency with 167 member states tasked to develop and maintain a comprehensive regulatory framework for shipping. The Maritime Safety Committee is IMO’s highest technical body dealing with maritime safety and security-related matters.

Philippine Ambassador Edgardo Espiritu cited Ferrer’s election and IMO/MSC stewardship as a great honor for the Philippines.

Since 2003, Ferrer has been serving as Alternate Permanent Representative of the Philippines to the IMO.

In 2004, he was elected to the post of MSC vice chairman, and re-elected in 2005 and 2006.

Following the death of Russia’s I. Ponomarev, MSC’s chairman for 2006, Ferrer presided as acting chairman of the committee’s 82nd session, which was held from Nov. 29 to Dec. 8, 2006 in Istanbul.

He was also elected chairman of the 19th Extraordinary Session of the International Mobile Satellite Organization (IMSO) Assembly held in London in March 2007.   

Under Ferrer’s leadership, the MSC has approved important measures to ensure the timely implementation of the long-range identification and tracking system for ships, and has adopted vital amendments to the 1974 Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS) Convention and its 1988 Protocol.

The Committee also approved a number of important measures on the enhancement of maritime security and safety of navigation.