Sonia B. Malaluan

Ms. Sonia Bautista Malaluan was appointed by the President as Administrator of the Maritime Industry Authority in December 2023. Before her appointment as Administrator, she was Deputy Administrator for Planning from February 2022. Her extensive professional career at MARINA includes more than 35 years of service in different capacities and units such domestic shipping, maritime manpower, planning, finance and administrative matters and even regional operations. She served as the Philippine Maritime Attache in London, United Kingdom from January 2019 to January 2022. Her primary responsibilities as Maritime Attache include, among others, representation in meetings at the International Maritime Organization (IMO) and other conventions, meetings & conferences and provide advisory and technical assistance activities to the Head of Mission on matters relating to flag administration, seafarers administration, including fair treatment of seafarers during maritime incidents, those detained on suspicion of maritime crime, cases of abandonment of seafarers and shipyard regulations.

Administrator Malaluan has been a representative or delegate of MARINA to different international fora, including: ASEAN Senior Transport Officials Meetings and ASEAN Maritime Technical Working Group Meetings. She also led the successful Philippine hosting of conferences such as Diplomatic Conference for the Adoption of the Amendments to the STCW 1978 Convention, now known as the Manila Amendments, the National Forum of Domestic Ships in 2013, the International Conference on Safety of Ships Carrying Passengers in Non-International Voyage in 2015 and the Women in Asia Conference in 2015 and recently the Regional Conference: Seizing Opportunities in for Green Shipping in Asia and the Pacific held in May 2023. As a staunch advocate of women empowerment and equality, she is a member of the Women in Maritime Association, Philippines, former President of WIMAPhil, MARINA Sub-Chapter, and now a member of the Governing Council of the Women in Maritime – Asia (WIMA-Asia).

She is a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) and holds a Master’s Degree in Public Administration (MPA) from the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore, and a Master of Science Degree in Shipping Management from the World Maritime University in Sweden (SMC 1998).