NEWLY installed Maritime Industry Authority (Marina) administrator Emerson Lorenzo is not about to rock the agency’s boat.
“My marching order as Marina administrator is to implement existing policies,” Lorenzo said, adding that what is most needed is strict enforcement.
“The authority will just simply issue several policies to strengthen and clear vague provisions of existing policies. Other than that, we’ll go step by step.”
The Marina chief said he is also not inclined to reorganize the staff.
What he wants to see are stronger inspection procedures as well as the construction of a database of all Philippine-flag vessels freely accessible to the public. The database will show the vessel history from the time of construction to all the changes it went through, including its owners, nature of trade prior to acquisition, dry-docking history, detailed inspection reports and photos of actual inspection.
In the meantime, Lorenzo has already ordered the random inspection of all roll on-roll off vessels plying the local trade with particular focus on Cebu and Batangas due to the large passenger volume in those ports.
