Our questionable heroism

As the nation commemorates on April 9 its Araw ng Kagitingan, we contemplate earnestly our role in this modern-day commemoration in view of the dynamics of labor migration and the issue of brain drain. Is there such a thing as brain drain? For that, I leave it to the expert to argue but labor migration? Definitely yes.

Our country is the biggest exporter of skilled labors considered to be an important human capital to other countries from Europe, Asia and the Pacific, Middle East and Americas. Our labor migration patterns are getting younger and speedier, which means, younger Filipinos or young professionals are searching for jobs overseas than staying in the country. Speedier because almost always our young professionals wanted to get out as soon as they can. This is the reason why most of our nursing passers wanted to take volunteer jobs in many hospitals and then after a year or two, leave the country for a better paying, better work environment overseas. Also, our engineers who recently passed the board examinations opts to pursue work assignments in Middle Eastern countries like in Dubai, Saudi Arabia, and Lebanon because in our own country, construction work experienced a dearth since the Asian financial crisis in 1997 and has recovered albeit slowly. This is also one of the reasons why in most construction companies, they find it hard to look for exceptional engineers who stays in their company. Mostly, the talented, brilliant and exceptional work abroad.

In the aspect of the teaching profession, most of our English teachers worked or seeks to work in the United States and in many Western countries leaving behind a dysfunctional educational system that impacts directly on our future. These professionals are making great strides in foreign lands and help build on a society and economy of the foreign host rather than in our own country. As I see it, what seems to be the problem is our attitude towards creating employment and the seriousness that we attribute to the creation of jobs that will be beneficial to our fellowmen. I said it because as I noticed, most of the jobs created internally (nationally, regionally and province-wide) are not sufficient to meet the demands of inflation, high cost of living and future prospects that most of our employable fellowmen are looking. In most cases too, we offer jobs that are seasonal, unpredictable and unstable plus no assurance of job security. Whether we accept it or not, most of our graduates in 2008 would most certainly seek work in the government because it is only through government employment that they have job security. Our government as well as the private industries failed to create jobs that will be rewarding and secured. In lamentable situation, job creations are limited to short-term prospects.

Our questionable heroism lies entirely on the kind of work and employment opportunities that are within our reach. We choose to stay in the Philippines and be with our families and friends as long as we are assured of a job that rewards us for our humble contribution through the efficient use of our resources, expertise and talents as well as skills, not because we gossip a lot. Unfortunately in the Philippines, it has been an accepted norm in society that work environments are always replete with gossipers who feast on the non-essential information that leads to low performance and we are proud of it. We can not blame those who decides to get out too soon because they felt they have little chances of getting by in life while in the Philippines. We felt that we can only survive in the country as long as we join politics and be seasoned politicians. We felt that our stay in the country will not be something that can be predicted with certainty and confidence because we disparage our government with rallies, accusations that can not be proven in courts and because we felt that this nation miserably failed us.

Honestly, if I have the chance to seek for work overseas, I will go. It is because I personally felt that my contribution in terms of talents, skills, and expertise are given little value. It is also because the person or people who can easily get by and controversially enriched themselves are those that are either in politics or working in politics. In the Philippines, one seldom hears great success stories of workers in manufacturing plants, processing companies, in IT, in commerce and management. In this country, one regular hears too much too often about people who are influential because they are mayors, governors, congressmen, senators, and presidents. Their story does not make us stay behind in the country and work; their stories are the ones that drive us away. We had too many unsavory stories of people who do not inspire us to stay but motivated us to move away.