JOURNALS OF A FILIPINO SEAMAN

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 at...

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 morni...

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...

( 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 th...

    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" rest...

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 ba...

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 ...