by Nimfa L. Estrellado Straight Talk February 10, 2019 The Philippines is a top supplier of seafarers. According to research, the Phili...
Straight Talk
February 10, 2019
The Philippines is a top supplier of seafarers. According to research, the Philippines provides more seafarers to the global labor market than any other country in the world, accounting for approximately a fifth of 1.2 million maritime workers. The number of Filipinos currently living on vessels is roughly 240,000.
The industry has not always employed Filipino crew members in these numbers. In the 1960s, only 2,000 Filipinos worked in international waters. But after the oil crisis of the 1970s placed financial pressure on the industry and a shift in maritime regulations allowed ships to hire workers from countries with lower wages, companies set out to reduce labor costs. According to Norwegian anthropologist Gunnar Lamvik, the Filipinos emerged in the late 1970s and early 1980s as the most qualified option for the mostly European-owned businesses.
“They are fluent in English, they are Christians, and they accepted cheaper pay,” said Lamvik, whose grandfather and great-grandfather both worked on Norwegian ships. The Filipinos also had a built-in nautical legacy. From the 16th through the 19th century, Filipinos were ordered into servitude on Spanish galleons, and in the 1800s, they helped man American whaling ships.
Post of a grieving mother of missing seafarer asking for help on social media has officially gone viral. She aims that through her post, somebody can offer much-needed help.
Kristoffer Agpasa Galorio, born on August 20, 1998, from Iligan City, Philippines and works as a seaman went missing onboard BW OAK, homeport is the ISLE OF MAN on December 28, 2018.
According to his mother, during their last conversation, her son mentioned that Japan is their next destination and he is very excited to visit the place. They briefly exchanged news. He was very well, happy and he did not mention to them anything, in particular, that would be made them think he was not well, or that something wrong.
But, from the conversation between Galorio and his girlfriend draws them deeper to might what have happened. This text concludes that he was having trouble with his chief mates' den and suspected foul play from the family. The family went to Raffy Tulfo’s Wanted Sa Radyo to speed up its investigation. As of the moment, the reason behind the disappearance of Galorio remains unknown.
In a social media post, someone said he is now dead and his body stored in a freezer. There is really no verification of whether the person is alive or dead but the relatives fear foul play in the case of the missing 20-year-old Filipino seaman who was supposed to go to Japan aboard.
One of the concerns of the family is that they can not get an incident report of the shipping line where Galorio works. This is a frustration to the family. According to the shipping line, there was a rescue operation to find the young man. But until now no information has been released yet. According to the shipping line spokesperson, Galorio could have a jump or accidentally fall from the ship.
You’ll never believe the disturbing number of a missing seafarer in our country. Out of all the things that freak me out, nothing freaks me out quite the same way that missing person cases from history do. There’s something about the fact that someone could totally disappear — that they could vanish without a trace — never to be seen again. I think it has to do with the fact that in many of these cases, we’ll never truly know what happened.
The mysteries remain unsolved, and they’re probably going to stay as such. Are they victims of human trafficking? I hope the present administration will do something about it. Finding missing people sometimes involve arduous research. This can be a tedious and time-consuming task. Private investigators do this sort of thing all the time. Property tax records, death records, and court records all provide a wealth of information when searching for a missing person.
Every year, around the world, a million people are reported missing. About nine of every ten missing people are eventually found. The rest are labeled “missing.” Missing persons cases are incredibly painful. These cases have all the trauma of loss without the sense of closure that comes with a documented crime. Instead, they leave friends and family with sleepless nights and an impossible stream of “what ifs.”
