The National Maritime Polytechnic (NMP), a government-owned maritime training and research center based in Tacloban, is coordinating with the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) for its expansion project in Luzon, an official said Wednesday.

In a forum, NMP Executive Director Victor del Rosario said they are planning to build a training center on a 2.1 hectare lot in Tanza, Cavite to make their training accessible to Filipino seafarers in Luzon. Most of them are from Calabarzon.

Majority of seafarers also come from Western Visayas, Central Visayas, and some parts of Mindanao.

“As far as JICA is concerned, we have part of our strategic direction for the coming years is the expansion of NMP to Luzon,” he added.

“After our feasibility study, we will present it to JICA. We already made an initial consultation with JICA but this is, of course, a long-term plan of the National Maritime Polytechnic. This will not happen in the next two or three years. This will take so long,” Del Rosario said.

He said the agency also plans to expand in Davao City and build a training center in a 5,000 square meter land in the Regional Government Center.

Del Rosario said that of their P228 million proposed budget for next year, 10 million was allocated for NMP’s expansion in Luzon, which they are lobbying to be a priority infrastructure project.

“Definitely, we will turn out the feasibility study in 2025. So we will finish, definitely. We will finish the conduct of the feasibility study and thereafter, we will present it to NEDA (National Economic Development Authority), so that it can be a priority infrastructure project of the president.

He said that the NMP’s plan to expand to Luzon was a project that started under the term of former president Joseph Estrada but was halted due to a sudden change in administration and it was only revived now. Jaspearl Tan/DMS