Last of 2 parts
PART 1 | Filipino migrant fishers toil on foreign vessels, return home with unpaid wages
Filipino migrant fishers are at the bottom of the food chain that feeds manning agencies, foreign shipowners, and countries that own massive distant water fishing fleets.
Fishers hoping for better pay working on distant water fishing vessels had to endure hazardous conditions. Some became ill. A Filipino even died in 2020, during the pandemic.
In documents Rappler saw, they complained about unpaid wages, unremitted Social Security System, Pag-ibig, and PhilHealth contributions. They raised issues of work being cut short — they were repatriated earlier than expected — plane fares and medical requirements deducted from their salaries.
Ten of these fishers, which named Britmark Shipping Services as the manning agency, eventually chose to settle.
“When someone chooses to report, it would take months, even years, before their case would be [resolved],” Angel Ysik, campaigner at Environmental Justice Foundation, told Rappler.
“They would just take it and then they would return to their provinces because they want to be with their families,” Ysik added.
But some fishers pursued cases and won. One of them is Nante Maglangit, a migrant fisher who worked in Han Rong fishing vessels from 2019 to 2021. Along with another migrant fisher, he filed a case against his manning agency, Global Marine Offshore Resources Inc., demanding unpaid wages.
The National Labor Relations Commission ruled in their favor and ordered the manning agency to pay Maglangit $4,828.40 (P272,056)*. He got his wages after two years of litigation, during which time, he said he worked as a backhoe operator while awaiting the decision.
Maglangit’s experience bore striking similarities with John Mar Regala’s own: long working hours and a harsh living environment. Aside from fish, they caught squid too.
Maglangit recalled some crew mates forming rashes after prolonged contact and handling of squid.
In September 2020, Maglangit fell ill. His body swelled. He remembered his son’s birthday happening that same month. “Noong time na ‘yun, sa isip ko talaga, mamamatay na rin po ako,” Maglangit said. (That time I thought I would die too.)
The ship captain transferred Maglangit to another Han Rong vessel on September 7, where he got access to medicine. He said the whole time he was sick he did not see a doctor. When Maglangit called his manning agency and asked to be repatriated home, he was denied.
“Hindi daw p’wede,” Maglangit said. “Tapos ‘di na sumasagot. ‘Di sila sumasagot. Pinabayaan lang kami.”
(They said we can’t go home. And then they didn’t answer anymore. They weren’t answering. They abandoned us.)
Because there was no doctor, Maglangit did not know what illness he caught. There were cases of migrant fishers catching beriberi, a disease caused by Vitamin B1 deficiency. When untreated, it could be life threatening.
Around that time there had been reports of deaths in other vessels. Juan Cernal, another Filipino migrant fisher, died on board Puyuan 768 on August 5, 2020, due to renal failure.
According to the complaint filed by his family in the aftermath, Cernal did not see a doctor when he was sick. The pandemic made it hard for the family to get hold of Cernal’s remains and only did so a year after he died.
Noong time na ‘yun, sa isip ko talaga, mamamatay na rin po ako.”
Nante Maglangit
Jayson Estrella, a migrant fisher who was based in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, at the time of his interview, also talked to Rappler about getting sick on board a Chinese fishing vessel, Dong Yu 1528. Estrella described feeling stomach pain, experiencing vomiting, headache, and swelling of body parts back in December 2020.
He was transferred to another ship to heal, just like Maglangit. He couldn’t remember which vessel, but he recalled wanting to go home.
“Gusto na namin umuwi kasi over contract na rin kami noon,” Estrella told Rappler in an online interview. (We wanted to go home because we were also over contract at that time.)
Despite his experience, Estrella continued to work on foreign fishing vessels. In 2023, Estrella said he started working on a Taiwanese fishing vessel.
“They’re invisible,” said Hussein Macarambon, campaigner at the International Labour Organization (ILO).
Macarambon compared the small demographic of Filipino migrant fishers to the thousands of seafarers who now have a Magna Carta as an extra layer of legal protection. “We don’t talk about them but they go through these issues every day on the commercial fishing vessel,” he added.
Problem with principals
Manning agencies are unable to give full wages because of the lack of cooperation from what they call the “principal” or the shipowner.
Relly Jose, president of manning agency GMM Global Maritime Manila Inc., said principals are “kuripot” or stingy. According to him, he had a hard time talking to principals. That’s why starting 2018, he stopped deploying fishers to foreign fishing vessels.
“Hindi sumusunod sa usapan o sa kontrata,” Jose told Rappler. “’Pag hinabol naman sila, wala sila dito sa Pilipinas.” (They don’t follow what was agreed upon or what was in the contract. You can’t go after them because they’re not based in the Philippines.)
Macarambon said there’s a need to organize manning agencies as they are the ones who have to “deal with their principals, the vessel owners that they deploy to.”
However, Macarambon acknowledged the need to “weed out the bad apples” among manning agencies. He referred to the government’s ability to blacklist agencies that violate the migrant fishers’ contracts.
Fishers’ convention
In a forum held last November 2024, DMW chief Hans Cacdac said their agency already shut down 14 illegal recruitment establishments and allotted P2.8 billion to provide legal and financial assistance to fishers in distress.
Cacdac mentioned the suspension of the “infamous Buwan Tala agency” (the agency that recruited Regala). One of Buwan Tala’s agents was the one who facilitated Maglangit’s contract with Global Marine Offshore Resources Inc. She was also the agent of Cernal at Able Maritime.
Regala, Maglangit, and other fellow fishermen were present in the forum where they raised issues of poor working conditions, contract substitution, and unpaid wages.
Besides assurances that DMW is looking at enhancing policies, regulations on migrant fisher training and employment, Cacdac said they “will also work on multilateral or bilateral cooperation with ASEAN member states” to develop a regional fisheries policy.
Cacdac has expressed support for the ratification of ILO Convention No. 188, which specifies the rights of migrant fishers aboard distant water fishing vessels.
Under the Convention, migrant fishers have the right to sufficient accommodation, nutritious food and potable water, free and timely medical care, comprehensive social security, among many others.
It also specifies that private recruitment agencies should not burden fishers with recruitment or placement fees.
There’s a long way to go before countries around the world collectively adhere to these rights.
Until now, Maglangit said he still wakes up thinking he is still on a vessel. He wants to forget. But he keeps sharing his story because it might help another abused fisher.
“[G]usto ko nga makatulong sa mga magiging biktima pa ng mga recruiter, mga ganyang pang-aapi,” said Maglangit.
(I want to be of help to those victims of recruiters, of those kinds of exploitations.) – Rappler.com
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