JOURNALS OF A FILIPINO SEAMAN

This is how i would look like when all these ECG sensors are strapped all over me on an actual Treadmill Stress test With the recent detection of some suspected problem on my heart by Halcyon Marine Health care System. I decided to verify this results if this were true on the local hospital, Good thing that my sister has a local contact with the hospital to perform ECG (Electro cardiogram) for free. Results verified indeed there is some sort of problem detected but is too faint to pinpoint on where exactly is the cause of it and needs further more test to verify it, (Specifically a 2D echo). For now based on the result there is numerous causes why the beat of my heart is palpitating. The nurse say that it is related something to my diet and have been drinking too much caffeinated drinks like coffee or soft drink , or some sort of electrolyte imbalance - that sort of thing , Other suggest it is something to do related on my sleeping pattern of sorts ( I wake up 11am and sleep at 3 or 4 ...

Take Medical exam   A. Repair dental  B. Retake urinalysis test  C. Retake Thread mill  D. Clearance on dental  E. Pay Halcyon Marine Medical 2000 Php for retake med exam  F. Retake IQ test Take QMS in house lecture on Senator Crewing Agency Received BTOCT COP document from MARINA Attend PDOS Attend Accounting Briefing  As of the moment these are the only accomplish object I had finished on the span of two weeks, Very little progress has been made given that funding has been very scarce. I could accomplish other objectives that require almost no funding within a week, however for the objectives that require money, then it will be a problem. It be put on a grinding halt on it. After a week of finding funding and cancelling out my deployment on CONTI Ginuea , (As a result of lack of funding to repair my dentals). I had finally manage to fix my dental problems but again,  unexpectedly I encountered a crippling road block. When I came b...

M.A.R.I.N.A. COP Releasing Booth as of March 09, 2015 Time picture taken was 1713 HRS Two sudden changes have been applied on the NSB principal in Career, First off the medical clinic for NSB principal is now Halcyon Marine Health care systems. (previously it was Maritime Medical Clinic) located HV dela costa street, deep within Makati City. Second changes was the additional In-house training called QMS (Quality Management System) which I have to take in Senator Crewing Agency near POEA area. I had already accomplished taking the medical screening, and cleared most required test. Incidentally my X-ray was not a problem and my Blood test are all clear. However though I had cleared most of the test some are still yet to be repeated like my urinalysis and Psych exam , as well as have dental repairs. For the moment the status of my medical is still in a pending situation due to lack of funding for repairs on my dental. I guess I have to figure out a way to get the necessary funds needed. O...

Couple of days ago, I got a BTOCT COP document from M.A.R.I.N.A. , This time around I tried the Online Appointment system method. Took me only a couple of hours to accomplish the COP document and I'd be back by march 09 to get the document. From my point of perspective Online appointment system of MARINA is a huge improvement compared to the "walk in " version of their COP document , it drastically reduces the time of step 1 process to a fraction of the time normally taken by just going to the "walk in" . Typically (as what I wrote before) the step one process takes literary half a day of waiting just going thru it and worst is that I had to wake up early at 1 am in the morning and be there at around 3am, accomplishing the COP document will be around somewhere on noon time or 1 pm , so it’s a 12 hour long wait on that scenario. From my observation the 12 hour long waiting time is divided into these . It's about 50 percent waiting time on step 1 process, 15 p...

Guess vacation time is almost over, After two month I am now headed back again in Europe. The Company I'm employed with just called and gave me the details, They said I'd be reassigned again back to CONTI N.S.B. ships and to specific it will be CONTI Guinea. It was a good vacation but i had to face the reality of heading back again. Sometimes i wonder and ask myself is a Filipino OFW really the modern day hero's or just another faceless modern day slave worker ? I have a lot of skepticism about this. about the part why are we called that , are we truly a hero ?. As far as i know , Heroes selflessly die for patriotic cause , OFW's didn't die for their country - THEY ARE SOLD BY OUR COUNTRY TO SLAVERY AND EXPLOITED to patch up the mistakes of our society and our leaders, and be the "milking cow". I don't think OFW's will be phased out not for the next century or two given with these situation. Not until we learned the mistakes and understand it why w...

actual closure order of PMI way back in 2011  For sailors up to now, it is still a big puzzle on how we are going to end up later on our career. I haven't thought of it exactly on how will I end up after this "Sailing" and haven't laid out exact plans on what to do on my retirement, Honestly it's still  30 plus years early for me to think of such a thing but who knows ? Maybe retirement for me might come sooner than expected. Although I don’t publicly speak about it nor admit it directly to my relatives,  I might plan to take another college course and most likely it will be in the medical field - YES believe it or not it - I will be in the medical field. I'm not setting my eyes to be at least a specialist medical doctor. I'm not exactly sure on how long it will take me to reach that goal but maybe I do have enough life span to reach that kind of objective. At the back of my mind I somehow think that being a sailor is not exactly worth it nor even enough t...

this is a repost on an article I've read from Face book groups Para sa mga nagreklamo na hindi sila makasakay dahil kinakailangan ng backer.. Basahin ninyo ang katotohanan. FAKE PROMISES AND BROKEN DREAMS Earn dollars, see the world for free and have a girl in every port.” This is the phrase that maritime schools often use as come-on, either as a blatant offer or as a subtle hint, particularly on collecting girlfriends, to lure unsuspecting students. Little do they know that this catching phase has wrecked a thousand dreams. (1) ON THE SUPPLY and DEMAND IMBALANCE: The Philippines is producing 20 thousand maritime graduates a year and the industry can absorb only three to five thousand. (2) INABILITY OF THE GOVERNMENT AUTHORITY TO TAKE CONCRETE STEPS: There are almost 100 schools offering maritime courses. Most of these schools cannot pass the international standards and had been committing moral ‘estafa’ for years in the pretext of giving education. The sad news, the Commission o...