In 2002, about 200,000 professionals, associate professionals and technicians left the Philippines for better-paying jobs abroad. Data for 2003 and 2004 are not yet available, but it would be safe to assume that each year a minimum of 100,000 professionals leave for greener pastures. That means that about 400,000 of the country’s best and brightest have left the past three years, depriving their own people of their talents and services.
You read something like this and all of a sudden you begin to sense something foreboding just around the bend. But well, statistics are statistics and depending on where inq7.net got this information, the figures could be higher than what the government would like us to believe. Afterall, this is one statistic where "shaving" is preferable than "padding".
The article also addresses the issue of what can be done to significantly reduce if not outrightly stop the phenomenon. And this is where I got a bit emotional about the whole thing. My mother is in France working and I am in Singapore trying to finish my masters, so you could just imagine how close to home this whole issue is. And so when I read somewhere in the article that an appeal should be made to the social conscience of professionals to first help their countryman before helping others, I felt somewhat slighted. But before letting off some steam, let me just say that I do understand that this editorial calls for a multifaceted approach to the issue of "brain drain". The government has its role and so do we.
But you see, this sounds more like a cop-out to me than a balanced take on things, especially coming from an Inq7.net editorial. First, the reasons for the flight of professionals are varied and complex but I do not think that these include lack of patriotism and love for country. I understand that this article does not say this is the case. It is apparently, merely appealing to the spirit of patriotism for the sake of the ailing country. But the call produces the same effect of taxing the already burdened spirit of professional OFWs and soon to be OFWs as well. We are made to lift the heavy weights the government deemed to heavy to carry - just so as not to be branded "unpatriotic". Is it just really the lure of plenty that makes people decide to leave their homeland? Do people leave just like that without first trying to help? Or do they leave because after trying, they soon feel that the government has given them that full and sole responsibility? What is so unpatriotic about leaving if it means that by doing so all the trapos will be left without people to govern and be driven to extinction. By all means, let us leave and then come back to build our country from scratch with the hope that when we do, even their ghosts are banished to the deepest gates of hell. It does not help to sound the alarm of patriotism because that alarm has never been shut off in the first place. And the government thrives on it. Many loot and plunder knowing that patriotic people will sacrifice to keep the country afloat. What are we sacrificing for? Heck, we do not even have leaders we could be proud of. But we can make them notice. I may be exaggerating on the idea of driving trapos to extinction. Their kind does not fade into the night so easily. But let us make them notice. Randy David's article, "Change" calls attention to the impact of the OFW phenomenon to the Philippine political system. This is a healthy sign that we are not merely contributing to the national coffers, we are also contributing to the national consciousness as well.
But alas, we cannot all just go to inhabit some part of Iceland or Greenland or Neverland. There will always be some of our contrymen, bearing the whole brunt of the government's ineptness, who will neither have the financial capability nor the opportunity to go to a greener pasture WHEN necessary. And true, they make leaving a lot harder than it should be. We remember them with great sorrow, thinking how we enjoy the security provided by our host government while we have left them seemingly in the clutches of an inhuman taskmaster. Which is why we leave but we never forget! We send our hard-earned money to pay for our children's studies and their children's studies. We contribute to our favorite charity. We excel in various fields of arts and sciences to make our country proud. Heck, my boss would have not known that Filipinos are loyal and trustworthy if there were no one of us here showing him that the Filipino politicians he reads about in the papers are more of the abberation rather than the norm.
We go not because we have to but because we must. In a country where decent job and decent salary do not exactly mean the same thing, to go out of the country at the expense of families and friends has become a small blessing. Has the government felt any pain from such a tradeoff? Well, let me tell you that with the way corruption is progressing in this country, the big "G" (government) has not felt a thing. Talk about frigidity! This "G" does not respond to any sort of stimulation.
Are we leaving the country because of the money? An honest reply would be "yes, we are". But (and here let me borrow the favorite catch-phrase of the TV shopping gurus) wait, there's more! It's also about the spoiled bureaucracy. It's also about the inept public official. It's also about the messed-up traffic. It's also about the farce which is also called election. Oh yes, indeed, there's more. Michael Tan could not be more correct in pointing out that when even (presumably) rich doctors from the Makati Medical Center are queuing up for visa applications for another country, there must really be something more! This is not to say that their paranoia has now become the barometer for establishing what's wrong or what's right with this country. This is just to say that if I can live like a king in this country but still choose to live like a commoner in another, then something must be wrong somewhere. Not that there's something wrong with being a commoner... Oh, i'm meandering again. But never mind me. I guess we all know the answer to that last riddle. Isdagobermentstyupid!
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