ATO scored for denying ‘brain drain’ problem

An administration lawmaker scored yesterday the Air Transportation Office (ATO) for refusing to recognize "brain drain" as a threat to the continued viability of the country’s aviation industry.

Zamboanga del Norte Rep. Roseller Barinaga, chairman of the House committee on labor, said the ATO "has demonstrated a lack of concern to the industry when it refused to consider the alarming mass exodus of highly skilled air personnel as a problem that could place local air transport in a precarious position against its foreign competitors.

"Something must be done to arrest the massive migration of skilled workers in the air transport industry who are considered among the best in the world. ATO may have thought the training program for pilots to be similar with those of nurses," Barinaga said.

"You have to shell out P1.5 million to become a pilot but one can become a nurse with just P300,000."

The lawmaker belied ATO’s claim that there are enough pilots, aircraft technicians, mechanics and engineers to replace those who have been pirated by foreign air firms.

"What we want to know is whether or not government has a solution to address this serious problem. If there is none, then Congress will have to propose one," Barinaga said.

"Foreign aviation firms have been poaching the best and the finest among our workers at a swifter speed than we can produce them," he added.

In a privilege speech, the senior administration lawmaker sounded the alarm on the mass exodus of highly skilled workers and its adverse impact on local industries.

Barinaga called for immediate action to the problem, including the imposition of a temporary ban or moratorium on the deployment abroad of such personnel to protect national security and economic interests. However, he stressed that such action should be balanced with the right of a person to "seek greener pastures."

He warned against the "unchecked outward migration" of mission critical personnel such as commercial pilots, aircraft mechanics, and engineers in information technology, shipping, chemical, metallurgical and telecommunications industries.

"Workers with mission-critical skills are necessary to maintain and protect strategic local industries. Left unchecked, their out-migration — through valid deployment or poaching by other countries — has serious national security implications and economic repercussions as they affect air transportation, tourism, commerce, construction and other economic sectors," Barinaga stressed.

To protect local industries from the unwarranted migration or poaching of Filipino skilled workers like pilots and airline mechanics, he invoked Section 5 to 31 of the Migrant Workers and Overseas Filipinos Act of 1995. The law, he said, empowers the State to suspend or ban the deployment of migrant workers "in pursuit of national interest or when the public welfare so requires."

At the same time, Barinaga urged Congress to direct the Departments of Labor, Trade and Industry, Foreign Affairs and the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration to consult the concerned industries and address the exodus of skilled workers.