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Officials of Misuga Kaiun - Maine Marine Co. Ltd. entice students to work with the Japanese shipping firm

School officials entertain the visiting Philippine country representatives from the Japanese shipping firm Misuga Kaiun – Maine Marine Co., Ltd. In the picture are Misuga Kaiun’s Training Officer Captain Miguelito Mariano (2nd from left), Training Supervisor Madelyn Bino (3rd from left), MPCF Executive Assistant Lydia Cervantes (center). Right side row (L to R) Student Personnel Services Director Cynthia Duka, Instructor Sanny Cantar and Captain Francisco Metille of Mariners maritime studies.

Legazpi City, Albay – Officials from the Philippine country office of the Japanese shipping firm Misuga Kaiun – Maine Marine Co. Ltd. in Metro Manila visited Mariners Polytechnic Colleges Foundation (MPCF), this city on February 20, 2014 to entice students to study hard, finish their maritime course and work in this maritime enterprise.

Included in the visiting members of the delegation are the company’s Training Officer Captain Miguelito Mariano and Training Supervisor Madelyn Bino who are based at the Misuga’s Philippine Country Office in the metropolis. Sherwin Narvadez, the firm’s staff assigned at MPCF-Camarines Sur joined the group the following day.

This entourage of Japanese shipping executives are here to give qualifying examination to would-be maritime scholars who eventually will be hired should they finish their studies and training in the school.

Meanwhile, Misuga Kaiun has continued its partnership with the Mariners System more so that it has maintained the giving of scholarship grants for the past four years to poor but deserving students at Mariners Polytechnic Colleges Foundation (MPCF) in Camarines Sur. It maintains a resident-overseer of the scholars to keep watch of their welfare as eventually, they will board the ships of the company and man their operation worldwide.

This company is one of the largest shipping firms in Asia with hundreds of cargo sea vessels plying various routes worldwide. ###

Mariners school hosts PCGA National Directorate’s visit to CGAD-Bicol

Rear Admiral Joseph Dy (left) of PCGA National Directorate is escorted by CGA-OTC Commandant Captain Steven James Diño of Mariners during the arrival honors accorded him held at the school’s annex campus in Rawis, Legazpi City.
Legazpi City, Albay – The Philippine Coast Guard Auxiliary (PCGA) National Directorate led by Rear AdmiraL Joseph Dy has visited the local Coast Guard Auxiliary District (CGAD) on February 2, 2014 and was accorded arrival honors by the 902nd CGA-OTC of the Mariners Polytechnic Colleges Foundation (MPCF) this city.

Rear Admiral Dy who is PCGA’s Deputy National Director for Operation was welcomed and met by Commodore Efren Rodriguez, Commander of CGAD-Bicol, PCGA Captain Steven James Diño, Commandant of the CGA-OTC Unit at MPCF and officers of the Coast Guard Auxiliary District in the region and other officers of CGAD-Bicol.

The visitation is a regular regimen conducted by the national officers of PCGA to the different districts nationwide to be able to carry out dialogues with senior CGAD officials and for them to be able to listen to local concerns.

One of the highlights of the visit was the donation of a rescue boat, life rings, whistles, signal life batons and life jackets to the local community that can be useful in times of disasters which were entrusted to the Mariners School.


Bicol Coast Guard Auxiliary District officers in one of the moments during a stop-over at the Port of Matnog in Sorsosgon while on their way to Eastern Samar in November 2013 for the ‘Mission Tabang’ relief and medical operation in Typhoon Yolanda ravaged areas. (Left to right) Commodore Efren Rodriguez, Captain Steven James Diño, Commodore Dante Jimenez and a volunteer.


The donation to the local community by the PCGA National Directorate which was entrusted thru MPCF-Legazpi consists of a rescue boat, life rings, whistles, signal life batons and life jackets which can be useful to local residents in times of calamities.

Meanwhile, the items given by PCGA to the neighborhood are useful items in times of flooding which occur during the rainy season and especially during typhoons.

“With Legazpi City considered as a low-lying area, items such as the rescue boat, life jackets, life rings, whistles and signal life batons are important paraphernalia which can be used in saving lives in times they are needed most”, declared Captain Steven James Diño of PCGA. ###

MPCF Legazpi hosts painting competition to create awareness among electricity consumers

Legazpi City, Albay – A poster-making contest participated by different private and public schools in the province of Albay was conducted on February 6, 2014 starting at seven o’clock in the morning at the Mariners Polytechnic Colleges Foundation (MPCF) Legazpi main campus.



Winners of the poster-making contest under the auspices of the Albay Multi-Sectoral Stakeholders Association (AMSSO) being acknowledged by MPCF Legazpi President Dante La. Jimenez while Benjy Santiago (at the rostrum), a member of the Board of Judges announces the winning entries. Top picture (left) Elementary school level winner Jan Abrey Lleno together with his coach from Polangui South Central School. Top (right picture) Ramon Kenneh Tua II and his coach from Daraga National High School. Bottom picture – Ricky R. Esquivel from Bicol University main campus receiving recognition of his being the winner in the college level of the competition.

The theme of the competition centered on the slogan ‘We Reject San Miguel Takeover: Boycott San Miguel Products’. Students from selected elementary schools, high school, colleges and universities took part in the competition.

It can be recalled that the issue on PRIVATIZATION and the eventual take-over by the San Miguel Electricity Corporation (SMEC) from the Albay Electric Cooperative (ALECO) has become a major issue for consumers in the province with the alleged irregularities that happened in the process of privatizing the electric firm.

The Albay Multi-Sectoral Stakeholders Association (AMSSO) led by its President Atty. Bartolome Rayco has claimed, among others the nullity of the referendum which awarded SMEC to be the concessionaire of ALECO. Foremost of which is the non-attainment of the required 5% of member-consumers who should have voted in the exercise to make the Referendum conducted valid.


The members of the Board of Judges of the poster-making contest with Sister Felicity Boy (seated extreme left), Benjy Santiago (3rd from left) and Vince Casilihan (extreme right) being introduced to the contest participants after the entries were formally presented. With them is MPCF President Dante La. Jimenez (2nd from left) as the school hosts the event.

Included in the members of the Board of Judges are three prominent personalities in the City of Legazpi City who are members of AMSSO – Benjy Santiago, a former Board of Directors member of ALECO and now Provincial Convenor for Albay of the Bicol Autonomy Movement , Vince Casilihan of Karapatan Bicol and Sister Felicity Boy of St. Agnes Academy.

President Dante Jimenez of MPCF Legazpi who is Founding Chairman of the Volunteers Against Crime and Corruption (VACC) was present at the contest with him as one of the advocates of the movement to make right the management of the power system in Albay.

Thru the poster-making contest, it is envisioned that this will further help create awareness on the part of the students and the public who will be adversely affected should the present development of unabated rising cost of electricity be not blocked by the consumers themselves.

Prizes were given away to the winners the following day at the ‘Educate the Educators’ Forum attended by school administrators, faculty and students in the province of Albay. ###

Albay Higher Education sector holds ‘Educate the Educators’ forum amidst increasing electricity rates

Resource speakers at the Forum (left to right) Engr. Virgilio Perdigon, Jr. of Aquinas University, Atty. Bartolome Rayco of AMSSO, Pete Ilagan of NASECORE, MPCF President and VACC Founding Chairman Dante Jimenez, Congressman Neri Javier Colmenares of Bayan Muna Partylist and Professor Bobby Tuazon of CenPEG, Universirty of the Philippines.

Legazpi City, Albay – Colleges and Universities in the province of Albay convened at the ‘Educate the Educators’ forum to assess the impact of the increase in electricity rates by the Albay Electric Cooperative (ALECO) in the operation of the schools and more especially on students and parents who will bear the weight of this additional burden.

The forum was held on February 7, 2014 (Friday) at the Jaime’s Hall of Mariners Polytechnic Colleges Foundation (MPCF) Legazpi school annex from eight o’clock in the morning up to two in the afternoon and was joined by Administrators, Presidents of Higher Education Institutions in the province, students and other stakeholders.

Central in the theme of the forum is ‘The increase of Electricity Rate by ALECO and Its Impact to Colleges and Universities’. Included in the battery of speakers who graced the occasion were REP. NERI JAVIER COLMENARES of Bayan Muna Partylist who talked about what is happening at Meralco, MR. PETE ILAGAN - President of National Association of Electricity Consumers for Reforms (NASECORE) who focused on the rights of Consumers, PROF. ROMULO “BOBBY” TUAZON - UP Professor and Director for Policy Studies of the Center for People Empowerment in Governance (CenPEG) discussed the effects on education of high electric rates and ATTY. BARTOLOME RAYCO – President of ALECO Multi-Sectoral Stakeholders Organization (AMSSO) and Engr. Virgilio Perdigon, Jr. of Aquinas University who discussed the present state of affairs at the Albay Electric Cooperative.


Bayan Muna Partylist Congressman Neri Javier Colmenares (left picture) addressing the Forum participants during the
‘Educate the Educators’ conference.


The resource speakers while attending the strategic planning with AMSSO held immediately after the Forum. (Right picture L to R) NASECORE President Pete Ilagan, Congressman Neri Javier Colmenares, MPCF President Dante Jimenez and Sister Felicity Boy of St. Agnes Academy as they face the rest of the officers of the Albay Multi-Sectoral Stakeholders Organization.

MPCF President Dante La. Jimenez was one of those in the forefront of the event with his welcome address and statement of purpose at the start of the Forum where he enticed everyone to be united and to rally behind the cause.

The awarding of prizes for the winners of the poster-making contest in three categories (Elementary, High School and College levels) held the previous day was made in the afternoon at the end of the program.

The speakers took-up subject matters which enlightened school executives on the present condition of the electric cooperative, how it was administered, the existing laws which protect paying consumers, the rights which consumers have to exercise and what could be done, in a concerted effort which will redound to the advantage of electricity clients not only for the time being but in the long run.

“A thorough understanding of how the power system operates in the country - from the policy makers, the national government agencies, the power suppliers, the distribution lines and up to the electric cooperative in the province - is necessary so that actions demanding for efficient service and reasonable rates which are in accordance with the law could be exercised by legitimate paying electric consumers”, said Pete Ilagan, President of NASECORE.

The effect of the increase in electricity rate by ALECO, if not abated is deemed to trigger a domino-effect on the higher education institutions’ operation and eventually on the shoulders of parents of the students.

With this development, a concrete unified action was agreed upon by the representatives of AMSSO together with the Albay Higher Education Institutions (HEI) sector to protect the welfare of students, majority of which come from the marginalized sector, the ones who will be most adversely affected by the increase in electricity rate by ALECO. ###

Top honcho of Singapore’s Serv Q company visits Mariners Legazpi; opens eyes of students on job opportunities

Serv Q International Placement & Management Company CEO and owner William Quah explains to students of MPCF-Legazpi taking up HRM and Tourism-related courses on job opportunities that await them in Singapore.

Legazpi City, Albay – Serv Q, a leading international placement and management company based in Singapore visited Mariners Polytechnic Colleges Foundation (MPCF), this city to entice students to study well and finish their studies in Hotel and Restaurant Management (HRM) and other Tourism related courses with flying colors as vast opportunities await them in this country especially for those who will qualify.

In a lecture given to students, he mentioned that the moratorium on the hiring of foreign HRM professionals which the Singaporean government imposed in the past years has been lifted and the need to recruit from outside his country has become evident.

“This is an opportune time for Filipino HRM graduates to work starting from their On-The-Job Training in which students can earn and enjoy privileges such as free board and lodging. Should they excel in their performance, the chance to be hired after their OJT is there”, said Mr. Quah.

The guest also insinuated on other work opportunities on Cruise Ship Management and land-based short technical courses which the school can offer such as welding and masonry in which vacancies abroad abound for those who finished formal training along these lines.


Mr. William Quah speaks before HRM students and faculty members during a one-day forum on job opportunities in Singapore.


Right picture - Mr. Quah in a huddle with a faculty member and students. Left picture - In a light mood while strolling at the school’s annex campus .

With this visit, the Singaporean business executive has established a tie-up with the Mariners school which opens an opportunity for graduates of HRM and other tourism related courses for them to be able to work abroad.

It can be recalled that the Mariners System with its schools in Bicol has maintained thru the years a policy which links with other companies in the Philippines and outside so that its graduates, especially those who excell in their academic performance are able to work in prestigious companies productively after they finish their studies. ###