In accordance with the requirement of the Presidential Commission on Year 2000 Compliance of the Office of the President and the DOTC Y2K Readiness Monitoring Center, shipping companies/operators and all concerned are advised to assess millennium bug or Y2K problem within its jurisdiction, to ensure that all systems continue to operate without disruption into the next millennium, and to achieve the Year 2000 compliance of all systems before January 1, 2000.

The heavy reliance on technology makes the merchant fleet vulnerable to the Y2K problem. It is quite clear that the Y2K bug can affect navigation, communication, safety and security systems, alarms, control systems, ballasting and electrical system. Modern day ships carry with them hundreds of embedded chips that could produce erroneous date or cause failure of a critical function. One specific navigational and communication system is the Global Positioning System (GPS) which could be affected by the Y2K bug or End of the Week Rollover.

In view of this, all maritime related entities are advised on the following matters: a) to conduct an inventory and risk assessment of all their processing system, computer hardware and date sensitive equipment and develop action plans to address vulnerable systems; b) to verify from the manufacturers and suppliers whether their navigational devices, GPS satellites and other hardware and software devices will work properly through these events; and 3) to submit to the Office of the Administrator, MARINA a report on the progress of Y2K projects one (1) month after publication of this advisory.

Please be guided accordingly.

Adopted: 12 April 1999

(SGD.) AGUSTIN R. BENGZON