PIRATES in the high-risk waters off the Gulf of Aden in East Africa have taken hostage one Filipino seafarer every six hours in the last two months. In 2007, the Philippines deployed 266,553 seafarers or about  a fifth of the world's 1.2 million ship...

FOR years now, the Philippines has been among the leading sources of seafarers for the global shipping industry. One in every five seafarers plying the world's waters today is Filipino, and the total amount they send home each year is astounding. Indeed,...