Not all in this time of pandemic is bad news. From time to time, a bit of good news gives us a bit of hope such as the advisory issued by MARINA last August 28, 2020. This is related to expiring Seafarers Identification and Record Book (SIRB) or the Seafarers Record Book (SRB) of Filipino seafarers for 2020.
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| A Happy Filipino Seaman During Crew Change in Bataan (Taken from MARINA FB Page) |
Due to the ongoing pandemic brought by COVID 19, MARINA, on the grounds of compassion. MARINA have extended the validity of Philippine SIRB/SRB automatically for 1 year without having to file for application at MARINA. This advisory is applicable for seafarers holding an SIRB/SRB and expiring between 13 March to 31 December 2020. A copy of this advisory can be obtained at MARINA website under Advisory number 2020-67. You may noticed that the coverage of this advisory was the start of the nationwide ECQ last 13 March 2020.
However, for seafarers who are ashore are encouraged to file their renewal 6 months before the expiration. It is expected that when all this pandemic thing is over, there will be a heavy volume of seamen who will apply for the renewal of their SIRB/SRB. So better to apply now if you can and avoid having long lines come next year.
Shipping companies and manning/crewing agencies will be also required to submit a list of people who are currently onboard and will be affected by this extension and email it at mds@marina.gov.ph. A template for making the list is also available at the MARINA website.
This is a very welcome development and we should give all cheers to MARINA for doing this. We all know that seafarers are one of the heavily affected by the pandemic.
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