• Assistant Secretary Jerome Pampolina, Department of Migrant Workers
• Mr Margarito Raynera, EU Delegation to the Philippines,
• Our partners from the government, workers and employers organizations,
• Distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, magandang umaga sa inyong lahat (good morning to all of you)!

We are grateful for your presence at the ILO Ship to Shore’s Fourth National Project Advisory Committee (PAC) meeting today.

The last PAC meeting was in April of this year. The COVID-19 pandemic is not yet over, but it seems to have passed its peak. We can meet more often in person.

Ship to Shore Rights South-East Asia has been implemented in the Philippines for about two years. The programme has operated under challenging conditions. Not only the COVID pandemic, but also multiple and overlapping crises compounded by the Russia and Ukraine conflict, including the rising inflation.

The reopening of borders for labour migration from the Philippines will also bring challenges for Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs). They will deal with higher migration costs, unfair or fraudulent recruitment practices, often in precarious jobs and in sectors struggling to recover from the pandemic’s impact.

As we move to recovery and rebuilding, Ship to Shore Rights will ensure that its interventions are forward-looking and focused on systemic changes that will be sustainable and resilient to future crises, regardless of their form.

The re-opening of the region and the world presents interesting opportunities in the months ahead. As travel restrictions eases, Ship to Shore Rights will support more national, and even sub-national activities.

The project also promotes international exchanges, such as the recent SEA Forum held in Bali in September of this year.

The project allows to build on experiences and lessons learnt in the Thailand phase to the broader region, including potential replications in the Philippines.

We can adapt and implement the region’s most successful elements in the Philippines.

We are also able to leverage the comparative advantage and expertise of the implementing partners to optimize the programme’s impact.

This is also consistent with the ILO’s Global Call to Action and the Decent Work Country Programme of the Philippines for an inclusive, sustainable and resilient human-centred recovery.

We will hear more about these project activities today, and we count on your contributions as PAC members.

Together, we can increase the influence of Ship to Shore Rights in transforming the fishing and seafood processing sectors so that decent work and safe labour migration becomes a reality for all.

I wish you a successful and fruitful PAC meeting. Thank you!