For many years the Philippines has been the main labor-supplying country to the international shipping industry.   To comply with the amendments made to the International Convention on Standards of Training and Watchkeeping for Seafarers of 1978 (STCW 78), adopted by the International Maritime Organization (IMO) in July 1995, the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) in June 1998 implemented a new structure and new curricula for education of junior Marine Officers, i.e. Bachelor of Science in Marine Transportation and Bachelor of Science in Marine Engineering.  .

In order to meet the sudden need for new affordable text- and working-books of acceptable quality, the Philippine Foundation for Maritime Teaching Aids, Inc. (MARTA) was registered at the Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) on 18 November 1999 with the following purposes:

• To develop, improve, guide and provide maritime teaching aids, such as books and other instructional materials, equipment, simulators and software, as well as teachers for the maritime industry;
• To Reprint and market, as appropriate, maritime publications published abroad;
• To grasp the training needs of the maritime industry and provide the means necessary for building and assessing the competence needed; and
• To accept donations for the purposes stated above.

Publications for all major subjects are now provided for both the operational and the management level.  Six persons are permanently employed by MARTA.  In addition some fifty authors and consultants are engaged on projects aimed at developing new and improving the existing books.

The Board of Trustees is composed of three Filipinos and two Norwegians: