Editor's Note" We need to know what the authorities in the shipping industry are thinking about the raging issues of our time. Any commentary will find space here as long as it is constructive and relevant.

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President Estrada doesn't know it yet. But a real catastrophe is about to befall the country. It's a catastrophe that could make the BW Resources scandal, the Mayon Volcano Eruption, and the latest Abu Sayyaf kidnapping seem like trivial events in the life of his troubled administration.

Hundreds of thousands of Filipino seafarers thrown out of work, $2.6 billion a year in salary remittances gone down the drain. The death of the multi-million-dollar manning industry. Hard to imagine? Not if you know what's happening and realize that the Philipines -- the world's top crew supplier -- has so little chance of making it to the International Maritime Organization's "white list" of countries complying with the 1995 STCW Convention. Consider these:

* The Philippines' first compliance report to the IMO in July 1998 did not pass the scrutiny of the IMO Panel of Competent Persons. As the UK-based "Seatrade Review" Magazine commented, the report was "to put it mildly, a classic example of bad technical writing."

* With a lot of coaching from the IMO, the country submitted a revised compliance report last December. Still, the "panel" found the government's clarifications on some 43 apparent deficiencies unsatisfactory and raised 23 more questions.

* The Philippines replied to these on February 23, but the "panel" was hardly pleased with the explanations, prompting Cesar Bautista, the ambassador to the UK, to remark that "it seems we are back to square one."

The most nagging issue is: Which agency has the full responsibility for administering the Convention?" The IMO has raised another point: What levelof authority does the Maritime Industry Authority (Marina) have to issue  endorsement certificates? Given the bluntness of the question, it boggles the mind why key Marina officials have not resigned en masse and tropped to Mount Banahaw for some pre-Holy Week soul-searching.

The IMO isn't nitpicking either. President Estrada's Executive Order 149 affirms Marina's lead role in the implementation of STCW 95. Yet, Marina is not even mentioned in Republic Act 8544, which empowers the Professional Regulation Commission (PRC) to assess the competence of the ship officers and sign the requisite endorsements. Marina has tried to gloss over the entire issue that the circulars of the agency with "the legal mandates" take precedence over those other agencies.