Apart from being unregistered with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the embattled Marine World Maritime Services was proven to be a fly-by-night enterprise as it is not listed in the database of the Maritime Industry Authority (Marina) as a pertinent maritime enterprise.

Marine World Maritime Services, with office address on Mabini Street in Ermita, Manila, is the entity that collected P35,000 each from maritime students of Philsin College Foundation Inc., bridging these students to Lucena City, Quezon-based Starhorse Shipping Lines Inc. for their domestic shipboard training.

Upon verification by DAILY TRIBUNE in the database of the Marina-Maritime Information System Service, no Marine World Maritime Services appeared on the list, meaning that it is operating without a permit from regulators and, therefore, is not allowed to do business in the industry.

Starhorse fails on its promise?

On last week’s Usapang OFW, one of the notable digital shows of DAILY TRIBUNE, Starhorse Shipping Lines Inc. vowed to release the training certificates of the complaining students on 5 September.

However, according to the mother of one student, whose name has been withheld for her protection, they had not received the training certificate from Starhorse as of Thursday.

Worse, no one at Starhorse contacted them, the cadet’s mother lamented.

But in an interview on Friday, Dejan Giovanni Merle, the human resource and crewing officer of Starhorse, maintained that all shipboard certificates of maritime students of Philsin College were signed on Friday.

“Certificates that are now with us are from other colleges. No certificates are pending in our hands because Marine World has already settled its financial obligations. The signatory from our end has just signed the certificates today (Friday) because he was too busy last week. But we will double-check,” Merle told this paper.

Merle also revealed that Marine World supplies maritime student trainees from the Philippine Maritime Institute (PMI), one of the country’s notable private maritime schools.

Merle was surprised to learn that Marine World was not registered with Marina and the SEC, which he only learned during the telephone interview.

“Since 2018 or 2019 they have been supplying students to us in collaboration with Rocabels Maritime Services, another supplier of domestic shipboard trainees. Most likely they are using the license of Rocabels, that is why we accepted students from them in good faith,” he said.

With the information he received that Marine World is an unregistered entity, Merle said he would discuss the matter with Rocabels, a Binondo-based maritime service that also offers shipboard training for deck/engine cadets for domestic trade.

Estafa, civil raps

Meanwhile, a lawyer from the Marina Legal Division, who requested anonymity as he was not authorized to speak on the matter, said Marine World may be liable for estafa, a criminal case, for misappropriating the P35,000 paid by each student.

Also, the Marina barrister said Starhorse can be liable for a civil case if it is proven that they held the students beyond their prescribed training days.

A mother of a Philsin cadet, during the Usapang OFW interview last week, said her son, along with other cadets, was forced to work on a Starhorse vessel for a month because Marine World had not paid its financial obligations to Starhorse.

This, however, was denied by Merle, the Starhorse crewing officer, who said they only held the sea service certificates but not the students.

The Marina lawyer also said that a maritime higher institution was not entitled to a license to offer a maritime course (BS Marine Engineering, BS Marine Transportation) if there was no memorandum of agreement with a shipping company that offered shipboard training.

“The students can sue Marine World for estafa for the misappropriated funds paid by the students since they don’t have the SEC and Marina accreditation. But for the non-issuance of the sea service by Starhorse, they can be penalized under the Civil Code. This is civil in nature but a case should be filed in court. We are not talking of the revocation of their franchise,” the lawyer said.

“Marine World is not authorized to do business; second, it has no reason to collect money. Students can also ask for damages from Marine World. But for Starhorse, if it is proven in court that they held the students for one month beyond their prescribed training, then labor cases can be filed against them,” he maintained.

DAILY TRIBUNE also asked Commission on Higher Education Chairperson Prospero de Vera if Philsin was liable for what happened to the students, but he said there should be a complaint from the students before they can interfere in the matter.

“Where is the complaint? The CHEd regional office can deal with it,” De Vera said.