Let there be brain gain, not brain drain - A VOICE FROM AMERICA by Ernie D. Delfin

For several decades now, the Philippines has been suffering the so-called "brain drain" phenomenon as thousands of educated and ambitious Pinoys dare to leave their homeland to venture to other countries in search of better opportunities.

And many have succeeded. Statistics show that there are now between five and seven million Filipinos living outside the Philippines. Is this figure included in the 75 million population of the Philippines? If it were, then that is almost 10 percent of the entire country’s population!

Let there be "brain gain" this decade, starting this year!

I am convinced that overseas Filipinos hold in their hands a powerful bomb that can destroy the many bad "habits" and archaic idiosyncrasies of most of us. For instance, Filipinos are known to foster the ningas cogon attitude and the colonial mentality. They often also exhibit the "mababaw ang kaligayahan" character flaw by allowing themselves to be bought by unscrupulous politicians. During election year, they conveniently forget all the sins of their elected officials. The common tao has short or selective memory. In many ways, the masa exhibit the self-defeating idiosyncrasies that contribute to the vicious cycle of dirty politics. Filipinos have allowed themselves to be used and exploited by many politicians because of the one-man, one-vote democratic principle. (I wonder if it would be better to vote like a stockholder in a corporation based on taxes actually paid. If you paid one peso in taxes, the voter has one vote, if you paid P1,000, then you have 1,000 votes. On second thought, this principle will solve one problem but it might create bigger problems as the rich and the wealthy will forever own the Philippines!)

Many Filipinos do not vote for issues and substance but vote for the ones who can sing, dance and give them one evening of zarzuela and entertainment. Worst of all, following a doleout for one day’s worth of food and drinks from the trapos and the masa forget their sad plight of being forgotten the last three or six years. This socio-political cancer made possible the election of Erap Estrada as the most incompetent president the Philippines ever had. It is indeed very sad but true.

This traditional way of Philippine politics must change if we are to move forward. We, the overseas Filipinos and OFWs, can initiate and become the driving force towards this much needed change. To survive and succeed in a foreign land, we have certainly endured a lot of sacrifices but triumphed through perseverance and discipline with changes in our habits, attitude and behavior. If Filipinos can change and succeed in a foreign country, what is the reason Filipinos cannot change and succeed in the homeland?

The key to change is not found outside but in each one of us. We, the overseas Pinoys, can lead our relatives to "water" but cannot force them to drink.

And that is where overseas Filipinos come in to help initiate change, especially among our relatives. We can be the catalyst to change the landscape of Philippine politics. We can compel (for lack of a better word) our financial beneficiaries to do what we tell them to do. The litmus test is what we can do and reasonably achieve this coming May 2001 election.

Towards this end, I hereby propose and challenge all nationalistic overseas Filipinos to influence the voting patterns of our relatives using our economic (US dollar or English sterling or Middle East dinar) muscle as our bargaining chip. I dare say that each gainfully employed Filipino overseas can at least influence his or her immediate family numbering between two to 20 voters to vote for more substantial and more competent politicians. Five million Filipinos influencing or "dictating" to our relatives or who ever receive our "foreign aid" can swing the pendulum for some good politicians to win. Imagine, five million overseas Filipinos influencing an average of five relatives will result to 25 million votes, a substantial margin to swing and elect another candidate like the caliber and integrity of a Ramon Magsaysay in 2004. In the local level, with a laser beam intensity of this powerful logistical weapon, we might even find it easier to elect the right barangay captain, energetic town mayor or even a progressive governor.

Let me elaborate briefly. As overseas Filipinos regularly send substantial financial help to cure that deadly disease called AIDS (Acute Income Deficiency Syndrome) that afflicts many families in the Philippines in the foreign antidotes called money and balikbayan boxes (filled with goods and merchandise) one simple love letter must be enclosed instructing them who to vote this coming election. E-mail, phone calls or letters to assure conditioning and compliance from overseas will be additional weapons in this socio-political warfare. A few samples of this big-brother admonition could be: Vote not for Loi Estrada (Erap’s puppet and doormat martyr – an unworthy role model for the Filipino woman!), but for Senator Joker Arroyo who prosecuted her husband. Vote not for the balato senator, the basketball or singing senators or people who are just popular actors or TV personalities but know nothing about effective governance and are devoid of management or leadership qualities.

Evaluate and compare all candidates against predetermined criteria of performance, leadership and management experience, education, integrity and their platform of government. From my vantage point, the People Power Coalition candidates appear to be far superior to the Puwersa ni Erap, er, Masa.

We, the exporters of dollars, can even subliminally threaten our relatives that the continuance of our hard-earned money remittances or balikbayan boxes to our families is contingent upon their votes or election of certain candidates that we, the overseas Pinoys, (who normally read more and analyze things more objectively) deem to have more integrity and competence to become leaders of our homeland. I truly believe that this strategy works based on personal experience of influencing my relatives and less-exposed friends who look upon me for guidance as they are the beneficiaries of some form of "foreign aid" as an ephemeral treatment of their "AIDS" ailment. Quantifiably, that is at least a dozen or more votes towards certain candidates that I prefer.

Concomitant to this goal of influencing our relatives to vote wisely, we, the overseas Pinoys, must also intensify our lobbying to the Philippine Congress to allow the overseas Pinoys to vote in future elections beginning the presidential election of 2004, if not sooner. Because of the Internet and the information superhighway, I believe we the overseas Pinoys know the issues better than the average Filipino – especially those in the provinces. Travel is one of the ways of education a person can have – an opportunity that the Philippines’ poor will never have the chance to indulge in, or experience. We, the overseas Pinoys, have gained some good perspectives that can be utilized to the betterment of our homeland.

It is a fact that the overseas Pinoys have many relevant experiences and practical observations that can also be adapted to uplift the conditions of their respective barangays or municipalities. Doing this for at least five to 10 years will make the Philippines a better place to work, live and retire in, thereby helping the "brain gain" of the homeland.

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Although I am not a full-time journalist as I am quite a busy businessman, in addition to this column, I will do my part to broadcast these unconventional ideas of political warfare in cyberspace in different postings in several e-lists that I belong to with the hope that this strategy is experimented upon this May 2001 election. Many among my fellow Filipino Americans here in Southern California and some of my friends in the Fil-Am media, including some members of the Media Breakfast Club of Los Angeles, are also advocating and helping spread this idea around the world. The challenge now is to be able to reach and mobilize people to achieve critical mass. I pray and I believe that it is just a matter or time that it will catch fire like the EDSA 2 phenomenon.

There is also an ongoing passionate debate among Filipinos both in the Philippines and abroad. It is about offering working visas to the United States for Pinoys in the homeland. Some favor to discourage such advertisement for high-tech or e-commerce professionals who are in high demand in America, while others believe that to discourage or suppress such advertisement is somewhat hypocritical and a form of censorship – and a violation of personal freedom. As a nationalist who happens to be in America for over a quarter of a century, I can see both points of view. Both arguments carry valid points.

Controlling the fire in the forest (i.e., limiting the "brain drain"), however, would be just an aspirin cure to this complex problem. No one can imprison the mind or switch off the ambitions of Pinoys and their dreams for a better future. With the affordability of the Internet, the world is now a smaller village. The Speed of Thought, to borrow the title of Bill Gates’s book, is now available to every human being on this planet that is wired to the Internet. Like the millions of Pinoys who left the Philippines, I truly believe that by leaving my birthplace many years ago, I too have become more useful to my country and to my people. A person can never give something he does not have. A Pinoy overseas is not less nationalistic than the one living in the barrio. Love of country is not the monopoly of those in living in Philippine soil.

Corollary to this "brain drain" issue is a serious and great challenge for everybody in the Philippines, especially to political and business leaders. It is a challenge to provide a level playing field for all who wish to partake in the economic opportunities. We must remove or at least drastically minimize the tong or lagay system that discourage many entrepreneurs to set up their businesses. We must make governance and the cycle of business operations in and around the government more transparent for every one to see. This formula alone will drastically reduce graft and corruption but will eliminate some healthy sources of the many politicians’ cash cows. My question is: Do our new set of leaders have the political and moral will power to change this cancerous system in our government? Only time will tell.

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Readers can e-mail the columnist to: [email protected] or [email protected] or visit his websites at: http://www.progressivetimes.com and http://www.katipunan-usa.org.