According to The Philippine Statistics Authority, there are over 2.2 Million OFWs or Overseas Filipino Workers based on their 2019 Survey on Overseas Filipinos. This figure shows that a Brain Drain is happening in the country because compared to the population of the workforce, 5% of its brightest and skilled people are working for the development of other nations. According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, a Brain Drain is defined as, “the departure of educated or professional people from one country, economic sector, or field for another usually for better pay or living conditions.” Most children are even encouraged by their parents to work abroad after graduation. This proves to be a problem as the Philippines is supplying the labor force of different countries, but lacking its own workers as well. Just like during the first onslaught of the COVID-19 Pandemic, there was a shortage of 23,000 nurses in the Philippines, according to the Private Hospitals Association of the Philippines Inc. Despite having produced an annual average of about 26,000 registered nurses (2012-2016), around 18,500, or 71% of the total, moved abroad each year. This Brain Drain is clearly the fault of the government’s negligence toward its workers, thus better incentives and care must be given to the country’s labor force.

​

The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) has created The Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) to protect the interests of Overseas Filipino Workers and their families. Also, as stated in The 1987 Philippine Constitution Article 13, Sec. 3, “The State shall afford full protection to labor, local and overseas, organized and unorganized, and promote full employment and equality of employment opportunities for all...They shall be entitled to security of tenure, humane conditions of work, and a living wage,” and Article 2, Sec. 18, “The State affirms labor as a primary social economic force. It shall protect the rights of workers and promote their welfare,” which implies that the Constitution protects the rights of Filipino workers to work wherever they want to. But, the Constitution also states in Article 2, Sec. 17, “The State shall give priority to education, science, and technology, arts, culture, and sports to foster patriotism and nationalism, accelerate social progress, and promote total human liberation and development,” which means that patriotism and nationalism are supposedly ingrained in each and every Filipino who went through the Philippine education system, yet some are so hurried to leave the country after getting their college diplomas because of the much more competitive pay. A news article from The Japan Times featured this, “It’s always on my mind: the fact that my daughter is a nurse in a foreign land in this time of pandemic when my own countrymen are just as, if not more, needful of her services,” said Gemma Borilla, 55, of Bulacan. Her 32-year-old daughter works in Saudi Arabia.

​

There are several factors as to why Brain Drain occurs in the Philippines: lacking job opportunities, poor working conditions, more incentives abroad, but the main reason for this is the fairly low salary. An example of this is according to the U.S. News and World Report, nurses in the US in 2016 made an average salary of $68,450 or ₱3,290,255, whereas a Filipino nurse working in the Philippines earns an average of ₱8,000 – ₱13,500 per month or ₱96,000 – ₱162,000, according to the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE). These figures are extremely disappointing as the average cost of nursing school is worth hundreds of thousands, yet the yearly wage of a Filipino nurse is underwhelming only a fraction of that. With OFWs increasing every year, more and more money is being put into the Philippine economy through
their “padala” or allowance money for their families, but this demotivates Filipinos being supported by OFWs to get up and find a job. They end up relying on them only and don’t care to work hard for themselves. This will only continue the cycle of poverty as fewer people will be worried about their future and not care to study anymore. There will be a domino effect, and it won’t be long before everyone is lazy and the Philippine economy is just going downhill.

​

The government isn’t putting the labor force as its number 1 priority and continuing to neglect its workers. Although DOLE is established as the department that is mandated to oversee the labor in the Philippines, there is not much improvement as the underemployment and unemployment rates just continue to worsen. There was some effort to bring back the intellectuals of the country through the Republic Act 11035, also known as the ‘Balik Scientist Act,” but it was not publicized as much, so not many people were aware that there was such a law. The government should
focus on strengthening the patriotism and nationalism of the Filipinos through the education system and increasing the benefits and incentives to the workers. Choosing to work overseas is the right of individuals, but the government should be encouraging them to work for the Philippines, their own country because it will never develop if the brightest minds that it nurtured are leaving it. It’s not their fault that they are continuously being neglected. Maybe if the government paid more attention to them, they would have chosen to stay.