[Rappler’s Best] Abandoned at sea 

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'At any given time, we deploy about half a million of our kababayans to the biggest ships navigating the deepest seas. The risks they face go beyond being duped by unscrupulous employers.'

Likely drowned out by the lives, posts, and hoopla from back-to-back senatorial campaigns the past week is senior reporter Lian Buan’s story on Filipino seafarers and — the fact that we have been on the list of five most abandoned nationalities in the last five years. Last year, 273 Filipino seafarers called for help for either being unpaid for at least two months, being left behind at sea without maintenance or support, or not having been repatriated despite their need for it.

This strikes close to the hearts of Filipino families. An archipelagic country, the Philippines is the world’s leading supplier of seafarers, such that one in every four seafarers globally is a Filipino. At any given time, we deploy about half a million of our kababayans to the biggest ships navigating the deepest seas. The risks they face go beyond being duped by unscrupulous employers — they get kidnapped or killed by marauding terrorists. 

• Nearly a year ago, two Filipino seafarers died in an attack by Houthi rebels in the Gulf of Aden. Thirteen surviving Filipino crew members were eventually repatriated to Manila. Barely three months later, in June 2024, the Houthis opened fire at another ship carrying 22 Filipinos, 21 of whom were rescued. 
• A Filipino cook is leading a landmark suit to end a Dutch practice to pay Filipinos and Indonesians less than their European counterparts. Read about it here.
• In September 2024, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. signed the Magna Carta of Filipino Seafarers. While some provisions remain contentious, companies and agencies are now bound by it.

Marcos had certified the Magna Carta bill as urgent in 2023. Yet it took a year for it to pass. Which just goes to show what it takes to debate and pass legislation that impacts the everyday lives of Filipinos. But many of us overlook — or perhaps no longer care about — this: the lawmakers we vote to office shape our communities and our world.

On February 11, the senatorial and party list campaigns for the May elections kicked off nationwide. Here’s a healthy reminder of what a senator or party-list representative is mandated to do. 

The divorced 2022 Unity team — Marcos and Vice President Sara Duterte — are dueling these midterms with gloves off and no quarter given. 

I joined our senior reporter Bea Cupin and production specialist Uly Pontanares in Laoag City, where Marcos formally introduced his administration’s senatorial slate. It’s a stump speech that he would repeat in their subsequent campaigns in Iloilo and Davao del Norte. As Bea wrote, Marcos is framing these elections as a choice between his “Bagong Pilipinas” and the Duterte regime’s bloody, pro-China past. But they also resurface his sibling rivalry with reelectionist sister Senator Imee Marcos, which she addressed head-on in Laoag, and their absolute power in Ilocos Norte. I tackled these issues in this piece.

We covered the kickoff rallies of other slates in various areas. Everything you need to know about the coming polls are on our election site — from the senatorial race to the party list as well as videos, podcasts, and shorts. Where are the candidates headed this week? Here’s their schedule.

Our campaign teams also make sense of the past week’s events in the first episode of our election show, In the Running, on Sunday, February 16, where columnist John Nery argued that it could be the strategy of Marcos to shape the midterms as a referendum on the Duterte administration. A must-watch here.

Here are some of Rappler’s bests that you shouldn’t miss:

Thought Leader Joey Salgado tells us why the Vice President’s conviction or acquittal becomes a “precious tradeable commodity in the midterms.”

Lian Buan explains what to expect at the impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte.

In the latest Decoded story, digital forensics researcher Gaby Baizas shows how right-wing narratives against USAID have reached Philippine shores.

Justice and crime reporter Jairo Bolledo tells us how to avoid love scams anytime, not just on Valentine’s Day. 

Sports reporter Delfin Dioquino educates us about curling. Because in case you missed it, Filipino curlers won the gold at the recent Asian Winter Games.

Liberty Pinili brings us to a coastal barangay in Mandaue, where families believe in the power of the broom.

To calmer seas this week.

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– Rappler.com

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