It is obvious that the writer wasn't happy that a Filipino soldier was awarded for keeping the insurgency in check. They talk about human rights abuses of soldiers, but whenever the Communists maim, kill or abduct our soldiers, they don't cry out complaining about human rights abuses. The reality on the ground is that, in times of war, human rights are always the first casualty, whether they're committed by soldiers or the communists, it doesn't really matter. What I hate is that, many in the media only talk about the human rights abuses of soldiers, while they depict the communists as poor innocent victims or worse, as saints!
We knew about this problem years ago. However when 9/11 struck, suddenly, there was a sudden reduction in airline fleets, with so many civilian aircraft mothballed in the deserts of Arizona. With fewer airliners flying at that time, many pilots were even laid off. But it seems that the travel industry has bounced back but then, many pilots have already been retired and it seems that their replacement was difficult to come by. What compounded the shortage is the entry of India and China into the travel world, thanks to their robust economies.
This is not only happening to the Airline Industry. The Philippine Air Force (PAF) also has their share of pilots defecting into the domestic airline industry where the pay is huge compared to their salaries as military pilots. Thankfully, we have an Air Force that's all air; that's why the PAF haven't gone on a panic mode unlike what's happening to the airline industry.
That Filipino workers are prized all over the world is mute testimony of the value of the Filipino worker to employers all over the world. Alas, it is only here at home that we want to keep our pilots, our nurses or our linemen, but we do not want to pay them better salaries or at least global scale salaries. We do not have many Airline Maintenance Facilities, because instead of investing huge sums of money to open such facilities here, these Airline Maintenance companies would rather lure our home grown airline mechanics, pay them handsomely and send them to where these facilities are located.
If you ask someone what would be an ideal situation for a Filipino, the answer would be that he would earn in dollars and spend in pesos! If we paid our nurses or doctors better, if we paid our linemen well, our aircraft mechanics or pilots, I'm sure that they would rather stay here in the Philippines and be with their families rather than go and live in a strange land away from your family and friends. A couple of weeks ago, there was a suggestion that a law ought to be passed so that pilots or nurses wouldn't be allowed to leave the country to work abroad unless they worked here for three years. If you ask me, if a Filipino gets a well-paying job abroad this is a blessing from God, so why should we enact a law to stop this person from getting a good job? That's sheer insanity! Call us lucky that we have become known all over the world as the employee of choice in so many countries. Now is the time to give value to our own Filipino professionals by paying them better salaries or wages. That's the answer to the problem of brain drain!