Arroyo puts positive spin to brain drain

Arroyo puts positive spin to brain drain

Mar 08, 2006
Updated 10:54am (Mla time)
Gil Cabacungan
Inquirer

WHILE most observers agree that Filipinos are leaving the country in droves for lack of job opportunities here, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo said that the worker exodus was propelled by strong overseas demand for their talents and not by desperate conditions at home.

Arroyo gave this positive spin to the brain drain that has long afflicted the country in an interview with GMA Network’s radio station dzBB radio Tuesday.

“I would like to differentiate between those that are losing hope and those that are leaving,” the President said. “There are those who leave the country not because they are desperate but because they have a good chance, since Filipinos are in demand and are world-class.”

Arroyo said she was proud of the fact that there were now 8 million Filipinos working in 140 countries.

“Most of them have very good positions in their jobs,” she said.

She noted that Filipinos comprised the biggest migrant group in the world behind the Italians (13 million) and Mexicans (10 million), who were mostly staying in the United States.

“Those who want to lose hope are those that also want to destroy our future,” the President added. “We have to be united to develop our country and uplift our lives.”

While overseas Filipino workers pump in billions of dollars in remittances that have lifted the living conditions of their families here and propped up the peso’s value, the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration has warned that the exodus of talent has put industries, particularly the health services, on the verge of collapse.

Because of the high demand for their services abroad, the country’s hospitals are suffering from a dearth of nurses and even doctors, who have given up the scalpel to work as nurses abroad because of the higher pay.

The POEA is doing an inventory of the Philippine work force to determine which sectors are experiencing critical labor shortages and find ways of stanching the outflow.

©2006 www.inq7.net all rights reserved