MARINA Partners with PNU on Exam Assessment

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The Maritime Industry Authority (MARINA) has partnered with the Philippine Normal University (PNU) on the provision of technical assistance on the assessment of the competence of the seafarers anchored on the new assessment system under MARINA – STCW Circulars 2018-08 and 2018-09.

Through a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) signed today, 15 March 2019, the MARINA – STCW office will be assisted by the PNU in capacitating its Board of Examiners (BOE) and in reviewing the current Table of Specifications (TOS) for the assessment of competence for various theoretical examinations.

The PNU will also work with the MARINA in the review of the tools for assessment using universally-accepted pedagogical methodologies, in the conduct of test item analysis to ensure the validity and reliability of test items, and in the establishment of a system for national and institutional passing percentage.

The implementation of the MARINA-PNU MOA will start on 18 March 2019 until 31 July 2019.

The MARINA expressed its utmost gratitude to the PNU for its willingness to extend its resources to elevate the competencies of MARINA – STCW officials and personnel.

The partnership with the PNU will allow the MARINA – STCW Office to better perform its responsibilities to create and evaluate the database of questions for competence-based examinations; as well as to review and replenish the database examination systems per required competence at a rate of 20% annually.

The MARINA issued STCW Circulars 2018-08 and 2018-09 for the new rules and mandatory minimum requirements in the assessment of competence of seafarers. The full STCW circulars mentioned may be accessed via these links:stcw.marina.gov.ph/stcw-circular-no-2018-08/ and

stcw.marina.gov.ph/stcw-circular-no-2018-09/.

Overstaying Port Containers Get the Boot with Manifesto on Efficient Port Utilization

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Overstaying containers in ports nationwide will soon be cleared, as the Department of Transportation (DOTr), Philippine Ports Authority (PPA), Bureau of Customs (BOC), together with port management officials, inked a Manifesto of Support today, 15 March 2019, for the efficient utilization of Philippine ports.

The manifesto of support aims to prevent the imbalance of inbound and outbound containers borne by the unscrupulous practice of using the ports for prolonged storage of their containers until the withdrawal of goods will yield to maximum profit.

DOTr Secretary Arthur Tugade witnessed the manifesto signing, which was inked by BOC Commissioner Rey Leonardo Guerrero, PPA General Manager Jay Daniel Santiago, International Container Terminal Services Inc. (ICTSI) Senior Vice President Christian Gonzales, Asian Terminals Inc. (ATI) Senior Vice President Sean Perez, and Association of International Shipping Lines President Patrick Ronas.

“I give my full commitment and full happiness in witnessing the manifesto. Signing this manifesto is one thing, doing and implementing it is another, and going beyond it will equally spell good business relationships within the country... This is not for show. This is for real,” Secretary Tugade emphasized.

Under the manifesto, the PPA will publish a Notice in a newspaper of general circulation, directing all cargo owners, shippers, consignees, logistics operators, and customs brokers to withdraw cleared containers currently being stored at ports within fifteen (15) days from the date of publication. Failure to comply will lead to the transfer of containers to designated Inland Container Depots by the ATI and ICTSI, at the expense of the concerned parties.

Additionally, cleared containers by the BOC that were not removed from the port within thirty (30) days will also be transferred by ATI and ICTSI to their respective Inland Container Depots.

Aside from the removal of overstaying containers, ATI and ICTSI shall regularly provide the government with information on the health of their respective ports, and information on containers that have stayed at the port for at least thirty (30) days from arrival.

“Today is a milestone as all stakeholders from the private sector and the government have come together to implement a sustainable solution to face the problems in our ports,” PPA GM Santiago said.

Meanwhile, international shipping lines are required to promptly remove containers from the Philippines within the period prescribed by the BOC, either by their regular call vessels or by sweeper vessels. The BOC will regularly dispose of seized or abandoned containers to ensure that the Manila International Container Terminal (MICT) and South Harbor (SH) are efficiently utilized.

“We are committed to make sure that our ports remain efficient. Rest assured that the BOC will continue to support undertakings such as this to boost revenue and to improve our position globally as a major player in the industry,” BOC Commissioner Guerrero said.

Dahua and Seagate Partner to Give You Best Surveillance Solutions

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Seagate was the most preferred hard disk or storage portable drives brand that I used in my business back 2008 and onwards. It was the most recommended brand used by our community of businessmen operating tech-related companies. It was the top brand on my list even before that...and I guess it has not changed until the present day.

The only time I used a different brand was when there are no stock....and I couldn't afford to return for another day since you tend to lose earning opportunities if you are too slow to make decisions.

During those times, I could very well say I had no problems with this brand, even after we got struck by Typhoon Ondoy that flooded the entire floor of my business establishment, their warranty allowed replacement of the flash flood-soaked hard drives...so I got brand new drives after just a few days.

Now, Seagate is still boasting of being the leader in storage solutions, including for surveillance video data. In partnership with Dahua, they flaunt of the best match to make sure your CCTV videos, including other pertinent data the system is able to identify, captured by Dahua equipments are safe and secured for even non-stop 24 hours and 7 days a week usage. With so many features for both brands, they may really be the best choice out there. You may also see UERC products.

Though I still prefer the SSD technology, it may take a while for it to catch up with the huge storage requirements, and the necessary affordability. The price of the better technology is still not worth the investment and could not cope with the storage requirement.

Watch our earlier Facebook Live coverage of the event to get the details. But we'll try to post them here once the complete data is sent to us.

Below is the official press release from the event:



Seagate and Dahua Teamed-Up for Smart and Safer Cities

Smart cities are, as a concept, are safer cities

Urban officials dream of a future of “Smart Cities” that use new technologies to gather comprehensive data and algorithms to achieve increased efficiency, sustainability and safety. Many of these technologies involve cameras and data storage that can be tasked with jobs that range from keeping track of traffic to monitoring peace and order in the city.

Seagate Technology, a world leader in storage solutions and Dahua Technology, a world-leading video centric IoT solution and service provider, teamed up to deliver the next wave of highly intelligent video surveillance servers with DAHUA IVSS and Skyhawk AI.

Smart City, Safe Living

Dahua's safe city solution provides an integrated platform and intelligent technologies to ensure cities are well guarded and efficiently run by providing end-to-end solution through the use surveillance technology. promoted surveillance camera technology provides and end-to-end solution. Enhanced features like cutting-edge Face Recognition which boasts of 99.8% accuracy, Abnormal Behavior Detection, License Plate Recognition, and Traffic Violation Detection. This unified safe city platform tasked with unified command and centralised data storage, this can provide rapid emergency response or cross-department information sharing among authorities. Dahua Technology also provides Mobile Enforcement that enables location detection and video footage sharing to securtiy centers via 3G/4G for faster and more accurate action.

Dahua solution provides good quality video images and smart detection in any weather conditions. After being widely used by many cities, the Dahua safe city solution has been proven to be both efficient and effective in protecting the safety within a city.


AI -Enabled Surveillance

Because Seagate understands the unique data storage challenges of providing safe city highly intelligent video surveillance servers, it teamed_up with Dahua Technology and with its Skyhawk and SKyhawk AI, the first drive created specifically for artifcial intelligence enabled video surveillance solutions. SkyHawk AI provides bandwidth and processing power to manage always-on, data-intensive workloads, while simultaneously analyzing and recording footage from 64 HD cameras and support 16 AI cameras with minimized dropped frames, reduced downtime and can withstand 24/7 operations. Equipped with Seagate ImagePerfect AI firmware, which means it can record high quality, sharp video footages while simultaneously facilitating AI-enabled NVR analytics that ensures files gathered through video surveillance are properly stored and easily accessible.

The SkyHawk storage capacity ranges from 1 TB up to 14 TB and with a workload capacity of 180 TB per year for the normal Skyhawk, while the Skyhawk AI can withstand up to 550 TB workload per year.

Dahua Technology made an early start in AI applications and has since made several achievements in the industry with the launch of their IVSS series. Through this partnership, Seagate's advanced technology complements Dahua's data storage challenges with their facial recognition, ANPR, PFA and other advanced video analytics advanced features. In addition, this strategic partnership between Dahua Technology and Seagate can boost the AI application across the surveillance industry

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