MANILA // Capt Wilfredo Iligan, 57, has spent all of his adult life at sea but over the past few years he has become nervous when navigating certain routes, especially the Gulf of Aden and the waters off the coast of Somalia.
"When you are out there, you become a sitting duck for pirates," the Filipino said as he attended his first day of mandatory antipiracy training in Manila. The Philippines, which supplies almost a third of the world's merchant seamen, has made it compulsory for all seamen - from officers to deckhands - to do the training before they are allowed to go back to sea. Courses began on January 15. Last year, 322,843 Filipino seamen manned the world's cargo vessels, from bulk carriers to oil tankers, an increase of 23.4 per cent over the previous year. But life for these seafarers is increasingly coming under threat, especially in the waters off the east coast of Africa.
This week the crew of a Greek-flagged tanker, the Maran Centaurus, which included 16 Filipino seamen, was released by Somali pirates after the ship's owners paid a ransom of between US$5 million and $7m (Dh18.4m-26m). "With so many of our seamen being held captive in recent years by pirates, the government had come under a lot of pressure from the manning sector, civil society and seafarer groups to do something," said Hans Cacdac, the deputy administrator of the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration, which oversees the welfare of seamen.
"We had to look at how best we could protect our seamen considering we are neither party to any of the negotiations to free them when held hostage, nor do we patrol any of the sea lanes. The best solution was to teach our seamen how to cope with a pirate attack or in a hostage situation," he said. Mr Cacdac said that after the release of the crewmen this week, some 57 Filipino seamen were still being held hostage around the world, most of them taken by pirates off the east coast of Africa.
"Piracy, especially in the Gulf of Aden and off Somalia, is still a major problem despite the international effort to protect commercial shipping," he said. According to data compiled by the International Maritime Bureau, there were 406 attacks on merchant ships last year compared with 293 in 2008, 263 in 2007 and 239 in 2006. The bureau in its annual report said 153 vessels were boarded, 49 vessels hijacked and 1,052 crewmen taken hostage, with 60 injured and eight killed.
Of the 406 attacks, 217 were carried out by Somali pirates in waters including the Indian Ocean, the Gulf of Aden, southern Red Sea, the Bab El Mandeb straits and the Arabian Sea, according to the maritime bureau. Mr Antonio Gálvez, the CEO of Marlow Navigation Philippines, one of the country's leading agencies for the placement of seamen, said his company began antipiracy training in July last year. "The aim is to try and better prepare our people in case they are attacked by pirates - how to prepare their vessels and how to act if held hostage. The safety of the crew is paramount."
The company runs a four-hour training programme for officers and a two-hour session for other sailors. One of the instructors, Capt Jess Pascual, said: "The pirates operating off Somalia are very sophisticated and have very good intelligence. They once operated 200 nautical miles [370km] out to sea but can now operate up to 600 [nautical miles]. They have sophisticated weapons and can operate from mother ships - usually fishing trawlers - well out to sea.
"Our programme is based on information exchanged from other maritime agencies, recruitment centres and shipping companies. We examine ways to best protect vessels and their crews before leaving port and when transiting high-risk areas. "If hijacked by pirates, the best thing for the crew to do is not to resist and do nothing that will intimidate them." Methods being used by shipping companies to protect their vessels range from using dummies dressed in fatigues and carrying wooden guns to give the impression the vessel has armed guards, to surrounding open areas of the ship with razor wire. Another effective method is the use of "crazy fenders" - logs hung over the side of the vessel by ropes, which flap about and make it impossible for pirates to get close enough to board.
One tactic now being taught in various training sessions is the "citadel" room. This was used by the crew of the Maersk Alabama, which was hijacked off the coast of Somalia in April last year. The crew locked themselves in the engine room and rendered the ship useless by turning off all power. The captain was held captive for five days and freed when the US navy intervened. Capt Iligan, however, believes that the tactics used by the Israelis and Russians are the best: "They use armed guards on their vessels and to date none of them have been hijacked." Capt Iligan has fended off five hijack attempts.
"The last one was in September last year. We were well off the coast of East Africa running cargo from India to Mombasa, when we noticed what looked like an old fishing trawler following us. I guess we were probably 600 nautical miles off the coast. As we sped up, so did the trawler. I ordered we change course 90 degrees and the trawler changed course. We outran it, but it was close. "I don't even get close to commercial vessels anymore because there is no way to know whether it was hijacked or not and is being used by the pirates.
"After you leave the 500-kilometre international corridor and are out in the Indian Ocean, you are on your own." @Email:foreign.desk@thenational.ae
