The Aurora Pacific Economic Zone and Freeport Authority (APECO) and Amphibia Marine and Subsea Services OPC signed a cooperation deal here Friday for a potential offshore maintenance, repair, and overhaul (MRO) and other services for vessels.

Under the cooperation deal, APECO is allowing Amphibia to conduct a feasibility study within the Casiguran Bay and Casiguran Sound near the Philippine Sea for its potential business here.

Amphibia co-founder Joseph Gandeza Buscato told the Philippine News Agency here that the study usually takes five months to complete, and they will start the assessment at the soonest possible time.

Amphibia’s commercial diving services include underwater inspection and MRO of vessels without docking in ports, which has additional cost for the ship operation.

It also provides marine salvage services, or the recovery of ships and its cargos after maritime mishaps.

“We see big potential here since no one is servicing these vessels in our eastern borders,” Buscato said.

He said since the Laguna-based company’s establishment in 2019, it has already serviced around 200 vessels, which included navy ships as well as commercial vessels.

Currently, it has a pool of 26 commercial divers.

Local jobs

Once Amphibia assesses that the location is viable for its business, APECO and Amphibia are expected to sign investment and lease contracts as well as a memorandum of agreement, listing the firm as a locator within the nearly 13,000-hectare Aurora Pacific ecozone.

APECO president and chief executive officer Gil Taway IV said the potential investment of Amphibia in the ecozone will create new jobs for the locals of Aurora province.

Taway said that under the APECO charter, a locator is required to source 60 percent of its manpower from local workforce.

“They are expected to train the local with commercial diving skills,” he said.

Buscato, who worked as a commercial diver in the Middle East, said commercial diving requires different skills from recreational diving.

“We have to train people. Currently, we do not have the standards for commercial diving in the Philippines. That is also what we want to bring in the country,” he added.

“We came back to the Philippines bringing these skills that we acquired when we worked as commercial divers in Dubai, Bahrain, and other parts of Middle East, to contribute to the national economy,” he said. (PNA)