12 August 2015 - The Overseas Voters (OV) registration team of the Philippine Embassy in Brussels registered seafarers of a tanker which was docked and loading oil in the Port of Antwerp, some 60 kilometers north of the Belgian capital on August 06.  The activity was able to register 16 seafarers of Norwegian chemical/oil tanker M/T JO Rowan. 

Capt. Jose Sales (Class ’94, Philippine Merchant Marine Academy), one of the registrants, expressed appreciation for the OV registration exercise as most of the crew members were unaware that they could also vote abroad. He toured the OV registration team members at the vessel’s deck, engine room, sick bay, gym, mini hospital and kitchen to provide them better understanding of a Filipino seafarer’s life and the vessel’s lay-out which will be useful for future ATN purposes. M/T JO Rowan, 229 meters in overall length, is part of Norwegian tanker fleet JO Tankers which employs all-Filipino crew for all its 18 vessels.

The OV registration team consisted of Vice Consul Oliver Delfin, Cultural Officer Faith Bautista, Attaché Cherry Briosos and OV DCM Operator Eric Rubas.  Fr. Jorgedy Bago, Filipino chaplain for seafarers and the Filipino Catholic community in Antwerp, assisted them. ‘Akyat Barko’ is part of the activities of the Philippine Embassy in Brussels to bolster its campaign for the overseas voting registration.

The Port of Antwerp is the biggest port in Belgium and the second biggest in Europe, after Rotterdam. In 2012, it handled 14,220 sea trade ships and 57,044 inland barges. END