SUBIC BAY FREEPORT — Subic started operations as a crew-change hub on
Thursday, September 10, with the arrival here of five Filipino
seafarers who finally disembarked after being stranded aboard their
ship for several months due to port restrictions due to the COVID-19
pandemic.
Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) Chairman and Administrator
Wilma T. Eisma said this was the first batch of crewmen to arrive here
after Subic was designated by the Inter-Agency Task Force for the
Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF) as a hub for
international crew change.
The five Filipinos disembarked from MV Dapeng Star, a liquefied
natural gas (LNG) tanker based in Hong Kong.
“The operation went without a hitch and was over in just a matter of
three hours,” Eisma said. She recounted that at 7:40 a.m., a tugboat
left the San Bernardino jetty here to meet up with Dapeng Star, which
had anchored near Grande Island at the mouth of Subic Bay.
The tugboat carried personnel from the Maritime Industry Authority
(MARINA) and the Coast Guard, who conducted the initial health
check-up of the inbound seafarers and had them suited up in personal
protective equipment (PPE) prior to disembarkation.
“At 10 a.m. the tugboat was back at the jetty, the five seafarers in
blue PPEs got off, had their baggage checked by K-9, boarded a van to
the One-Stop-Shop (OSS) at the Subic airport where they got swabbed
for RT-PCR test and had their documents processed by the Bureau of
Quarantine and Bureau of Immigration,” Eisma noted.
“At exactly 11:14 a.m., or just over three hours, the seafarers were
already departing for the Manila Grand Opera Hotel, which shall serve
as their quarantine facility for 14 days,” she added.
The opening of the Subic crew-change hub is expected to ease the
current congestion in Manila Bay where merchant ships with Filipino
crewmen await their turn to disembark their crew and take in fresh
personnel. The Philippines is among the biggest suppliers of manpower
in the shipping industry today.
Eisma pointed out that the problem on crew-change does not only
concern crewmen longing to go home to their families, or the congested
ports where ships await their turn to disembark their crew.
“It is, in fact, a problem of huge proportion because it affects the
global supply chain,” she said. “With the start of crew-change
operations here, Subic becomes a part of the solution to this global
problem,” she added.
The Department of Transportation (DOTr), which spearheads the
inter-agency project, said the Subic operation is part of the
“Philippine Green Lane”put up for the speedy and safe travel of
seafarers and swift crew change during the Covid-19 pandemic. The
other crew-change hubs are the Port of Manila and Port Capinpin in
Bataan.
Subic was designated as a crew change hub in July, and was formally
opened on August 22. However, operations here only involve
point-to-point embarkation and disembarkation pending approval of the
second phase where inbound seafarers could quarantine in local hotels
after their RT-PCR test.
DOTr Assistant Secretary NarcisoVingson, who supervised the maiden
crew-change operation in Subic, stressed that crew-change protocols
were strictly observed and that a “no-contact” policy was put in place
to ensure the safety of the seafarers and the attending personnel.
Vingson said that prior to debarkation, the seafarers were made to
undergo customs, immigration and quarantine (CIQ) procedures on board
the ship. Thereafter, they were debriefed, RT-PCR tested and processed
at the Subic OSS, before transported to a mandatory quarantine
facility in Manila.