Short answer. Yes. Article 20 gives the National Seamen Board the power and duty to regulate and supervise the activities of agents or representatives of shipping companies in the hiring of seamen for overseas employment, and to secure the best possible terms of employment for contract seamen workers.
What the law says
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
Labor Code, Article 20 — National Seamen Board. Read the full provision →
The regulation and supervision mandate
Article 20 answers your question directly by naming this as one of the Board's core duties: 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. Hiring agents and shipping company representatives are not left to set their own terms — the Board's mandate reaches directly into how they conduct the hiring of Filipino seamen, and into what terms of employment those seamen are ultimately offered.
Free placement services work alongside this oversight
The same article gives the Board a complementary duty: to provide free placement services for seamen. Offering a free placement channel through the Board itself is a counterweight to agents and representatives operating in the same space, giving seamen an alternative route into overseas employment that does not depend entirely on private hiring agents, and that costs the seaman nothing to use.
The registry supports this regulatory function
The Board's oversight of hiring agents is backed by its separate duty to maintain a complete registry of all Filipino seamen. Keeping a complete registry gives the Board a documented basis for tracking who agents are actually placing overseas, which supports the regulation and supervision duty described above rather than standing apart from it as an unrelated recordkeeping exercise.
Disputes involving agents or shipping companies go to the Board
Regulation is backed by adjudicatory authority as well: 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. A dispute over the terms a hiring agent or shipping company actually delivered, including a disagreement over pay or benefits, falls within this jurisdiction, with the Board's decisions appealable to the National Labor Relations Commission, whose own decisions in turn are final and inappealable, closing the loop the regulatory scheme is built around.