The Maritime Industry Authority renewed the accreditation of classification society Orient Class which is mandated to classify and provide advisory services to the domestic shipping industry.
Orient Class, the leading local classification society in terms of the total number and the total gross tonnage of ships classed, founded by lawyer ManuelTiuseco, is now the biggest local classification society with more than 20 maritime surveyors and technical experts.
“The year 2020 has provided us with great visibility to be able to see more clearly and has extolled the positive effect of collaboration with other reputable organizations that will be our strategic partners in our advocacy of Safety in the Domestic Shipping Industry. For the year 2021, we would like to see ourselves in the forefront to support the mandate of MARINA to that of ensuring safety of the domestic shipping fleet because advocating safety is not only our desire but actually our passion,” said Tiuseco.
Integrated Seafarers of the Philippines president Capt. Jess Morales and Philippine Merchant Marine Academy Alumni Association Inc. president and chief engineer Chito Majabague were recently elected to the board of trustees of Orient Class.
The partnership with ISP and PMMAAAI will bolster the capability and capacity of Orient Class to ensure the availability of technical working teams in provision of classification and technical advisory services to the domestic shipping industry.
This will also warrant the enhancement of standards in the domestic shipping while adapting to the local condition and being complaisant to the desire of the shipowners/ship managers.
Morales said that, “with the investment of ISP in shipbuilding and ship repair facility–the IMP Shipyard and Port Services in Leyte–ship classification is a vital component in order to ensure that ships being built and repaired in the shipyard are in compliance with the international and national standards of the design and construction ships to ascertain the safety of lives and property at sea.”
SOLAS 74 (as amended) Part A-1 Regulation 3-1 requires that ships be designed, constructed and maintained in compliance with structural, mechanical and electrical requirements of a recognized classification society.
“A classification society is actually the best “indirect” technical consultancy services for the Shipowners because Classification Surveyors, in conducting survey and whenever there is a deficiency or breakdown would provide the best advice as to how the ship can be restored into an efficient and good operational condition,” said Majabague.
Morales said Orient Class is now collaborating with one of the member classification societies of the International Association of Classification Societies for the development and improvement of classification rules.
This is in relation to the ongoing construction of a shipbuilding and ship repair facility in Albuera, Leyte, he said.