Article 20National Seamen Board

(a) A 19 National Seamen Board is hereby created which shall develop and maintain a comprehensive program for Filipino seamen employed overseas. It shall have the power and duty: 1. To provide free placement services for seamen; 2. To regulate and supervise the activities of agents or representatives of shipping companies in the hiring of seamen for overseas employment and secure the best possible terms of employment for contract seamen workers and secure compliance therewith; 3.

To maintain a complete registry of all Filipino seamen. (b) The Board shall have original and exclusive jurisdiction over all matters or cases including money claims, involving employer-employee relations, arising out of or by virtue of any law or contracts involving Filipino seamen for overseas employment. The decisions of the Board shall be appealable to the National Labor Relations Commission upon the same grounds provided in Article 223 20hereof. The decisions of the National Labor Relations Commission shall be final and unappealable. R.A.

No. 8042 is silent on this respect. The Boards referred to in this Article pertain to the defunct OEDB and the NSB. With the changes introduced by E.O. No. 797 as amended by E.O.

No. 247, it now refers to the POEA. This article, however, should be read in relation to Sections 29 and 30 of R.A. No. 8042 which provides for the formulation of the deregulation plan on recruitment activities and the gradual phase-out of regulatory functions of the POEA. Now the Commission on Filipinos Overseas attached to the Department of Foreign Affairs, pursuant to B.P.

Blg. 79, "An Act Creating the Commission on Filipinos Overseas and for Other Purposes." The functions of the National Seamen Board are now being undertaken by the POEA pursuant to E.O. No.

797. Renumbered as Article 229 (Appeal).