What’s noticeable about this idea is that it has the sponsorship of private sector organizations owned by rich families. These companies include PAL and Cebu Pacific. They do not want to pay wages high enough to provide for an acceptable standard of living. Therefore, they resort to legal maneuverings and “nationalist” sentiments to force skilled Filipinos to accept lower pay and mediocre job prospects. If they can apply this reasoning to airline pilots, they could one day try the same strategy with other professionals like nurses and engineers.

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5-year ban on pilots’ foreign hiring eyed
By Delon Porcalla
The Philippine Star 03/02/2006

Various representatives of the local aviation industry are pushing for the imposition of a three to five-year moratorium on the recruitment and deployment of Filipino pilots abroad, saying the exodus of Filipino pilots threatens the viability of the industry.

They made this appeal Tuesday when the labor and employment committee of the House of Representatives headed by Zamboanga del Norte Rep. Roseller Barinaga conducted a public hearing on the "ongoing brain drain" in the aviation industry.

Representatives of flag carrier Philippine Airlines (PAL), Air Philippines, Cebu Pacific, Lufthansa-Teknik and Aviation Partnership said government action is needed to thwart the exodus of the country’s trained pilots, who have been taking higher-paying jobs with foreign carriers over the last few years.

"All of us are suffering from deep bleeding in manpower. We are losing our pilots and aircraft mechanics faster than we can produce. Even trainers and instructors are now being pirated," Ed Medina of PAL said.

Barinaga earlier urged the government to make a decisive move on the matter because there is a need to "re-examine" the Migrant Workers Act of 1995, or Republic Act 8042, in "pursuit of national interest" or "when the public welfare so requires."

In a privilege speech, Barinaga said measures are needed so the country will not lose its pilots, aircraft personnel, information technology (IT) engineers and electronic technicians to foreign governments that have openly recruited Filipino experts in these fields.

"There is no way for this country to progress except to strengthen our own foothold," he said. "While we need to be forward-looking, we also ought to be inwardly interested. Our intellectual heritage and skills are urgently needed for the progress of this nation."

He said the "the looming crisis must be readily met and we should protect and ensure the survival of our own aviation industry and the other (affected) industries."

The country faces shortages of pilots, doctors, engineers, teachers, health industry workers and other professionals whose work is essential to the country’s growth because these professionals seek greener pastures and better pay in other countries.

"Let us keep what we have, enrich this nation with brilliance, talents and skills because our country deserves the best," he said. "Unless we have so much richness to make us live for a lifetime, let us not give."

To buttress his statements, Barinaga cited figures from the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA), which he described as "alarming." He called on the departments of foreign affairs and labor to review the Migrant Workers Act of 1995.

Government records show that, from 2000 to 2005, some 1,159 aircraft mechanics and technicians left the country, on top of the number of airline support crew personnel directly hired by foreign employers who, in effect, "evaded the POEA count."

"An airline reported that some 140 pilots left their employ during the same period," he said. "This should ring alarm bells since the Air Transportation Office (ATO) reveals there are only 700 commercial pilots actively employed by the industry."

Based on job orders, Barinaga said Singapore needs 767 aircraft mechanics and 50 junior aircraft mechanics, Saudi Arabia needs 73, Hong Kong and Qatar did not specify the number of airline support crew they need, China will need 10,000 pilots in the next 20 years, India needs 3,500 pilots by 2010.

He also observed that aviation schools in the country actually lose more skilled workers than they produce: "This deals a heavy blow to our domestic aviation industry."

"What aggravates the whole distressing situation is that the current capacity of our schools offering aviation-related courses is so low that we are losing our aviation people faster than we can replenish them," Barinaga said.

The government should not be overwhelmed by the remittances sent home by overseas Filipino workers (OFWs), who have kept the Philippine economy afloat, he added.

At the end of the day, he said, it is the Philippines that loses because of the brain drain: "The immediate windfall from the remittances makes it so easy to gloss over the reality that the diaspora of our skilled labor exacts a painful toll on the basic industries that should form the building block of a strong Philippine economy."

Barinaga added that, if left unchecked, the brain drain "will cripple not only the aviation industry but also topple the pillars of national economy."

In the past five years, he noted that the "poaching practices" of foreign governments in hiring skilled Filipinos for foreign deployment has "become a cottage industry."

Now there are efforts to impose a similar ban on health workers from finding work abroad...

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DEMAND AND SUPPLY By Boo Chanco
The Philippine Star 03/03/2006

Health workers

Dr. Ernie E emailed me a copy of a Reuters article published in the US about how the unabated migration of health workers to better paying jobs abroad would result in a the collapse of our health care system in a couple of years. According to the Reuters story, "over 100,000 nurses – including former doctors – have left the Philippines in the last decade and are now working overseas, studies show."

As a portent of the nightmare we face, the article points out "of the roughly 1,600 private hospitals in the country, only 700 are now operational due to the shortage of nurses and doctors." Some 80 percent of doctors have reportedly taken up nursing, to facilitate their migration abroad. It is tougher to get a job as a doctor in many developed countries but the large shortage in nurses, as much as 150,000 vacancies last year in the United States, makes the nursing option very attractive.

Reuters quotes former Health Secretary Jaime Galvez Tan who said the nurses who remain in the Philippines are overwhelmed by the number of patients they must take care of. At some hospitals on the southern island of Mindanao, there is one nurse for 55 patients, said Tan, now a professor at the University of the Philippines. The ideal ratio is one nurse to four patients, he said.

Personal economics makes the decision to migrate a "no brainer" for most health workers. The basic monthly salary for nurses working in public hospitals in the Philippines is around P9,900 ($190) and P7,000 for those in private institutions. In the United States or Britain, they would earn between P100,000 to P120,000. The entry level salary for doctors at public hospitals in the Philippines is about P12,500, while doctors at private clinics earn about P17,000 a month.

What is the response of Ate Glue’s administration? According to the Reuters article, Health Secretary Francisco Duque says the government plans to draw up a law to stop doctors leaving. "We’re focusing on keeping doctors here and legislation is the only way to do that. We want to plug the hole," he said.

That response is typical of a Cabinet member who thinks like a third world despot. That’s not surprising in his case. The Health Secretary is essentially a political appointee, who got his position as a reward for helping Ate Glue in the last election. He was previously head of the health insurance system and was responsible for the health cards which promised poor voters some level of health care in poorly funded government hospitals.

Of course government does not have the right to impose a travel ban on our doctors or any professional for that matter… that has to be unconstitutional. At the most, they can probably require those who benefited from government scholarships, like those who studied at the University of the Philippines, to serve for a number of years before leaving. Other doctors invested their own resources on their education and should have the liberty of seeking a proper return on investment abroad, if that is not possible here.

Basic economic laws come into play. If government wants to keep its doctors working at government hospitals, the pay structure would have to reflect that urgent need. Budgetary priorities must be changed to keep the doctors at home, even if it means laying off other workers in the bureaucracy whose services are not as vital.

The right to proper health care is basic. It is government’s responsibility to assure that every citizen has access to adequate health care or suffer the consequences of low economic productivity and a highly volatile socio-political environment.

Oh well. Here they go again thinking that they can use legislation to tinker with supply-and-demand in the name of "national interest". That seems to be the case in the Philippines where laws and policies influenced by rich families are punishment-driven rather than incentive-driven, as some observers have already pointed out.

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Loss of pilots, ground crews may force PAL to scrap flights
By Mary Ann Ll. Reyes
The Philippine Star 03/09/2006

Flag carrier Philippine Airlines (PAL) may have to start canceling flights very soon after discovering that the reduction in the number of its mission-critical staff, particularly pilots, has already reached "a critical level."

This was disclosed by former PAL president Avelino Zapanta who said that over the last three months alone, the airline company has lost 15 pilots to overseas airlines, which have resorted to buying out the contracts of local pilots just to speed up recruitment.

From 2004 to 2005 alone, the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) has reported that more than 200 aircraft mechanics and another 1,159 aircraft mechanics and technicians have left the country. Pending with the same agency are job orders from overseas airlines for more than 200 pilots and around 2,000 aircraft mechanics from the Philippines.

In an earlier letter to Labor Secretary Patricia Sto. Tomas, leaders of the local aviation industry, including PAL president and CEO Jaime Bautista, Cebu Pacific Air general manager Danilo Mojicam, Air Philippines president Edilberto Medina, SEAIR vice president Bernardo Bandonell, and several service providers including Lufthansa Technik Philippines president Dr. Andreas Heizner, have urged the government to declare these skills as vital to national interest and to consider a ban on the overseas deployment of the said occupations and skills for a period of three to five years effective immediately.

Under Republic Act no. 8042 or the Migrant Workers and Overseas Filipinos Act, the State is empowered to suspend or ban the deployment of migrant workers in pursuit of national interest or when public welfare so requires and to put in place adequate programs to secure the services of professionals and highly skilled Filipinos in priority development areas of the public and private sectors.

"With the expected growth in passenger volume and fleets throughout the region, the problem is likely to remain. The loss of these personnel means that the maintenance requirement of the fleet of PAL, other foreign and domestic airlines would be impaired with dire consequences to domestic aviation and airline industry," they said.

Air travel is expected to grow at an unprecedented rate with passenger volume expected to increased by five percent yearly until 2023. This will require 16,601 new aircraft. China and India, Emirates, Etihad (Abu Dhabi’s airline) had all increased their fleets but made no provision for personnel development.

Zapanta revealed that China will need 10,000 pilots in the next 10 years while India will require around 4,000 in the next five years. India’s Jet Airways, which was apprehended for illegal recruitment of pilots in the Philippines last Dec., has said that it will recruit more than 100 pilots this year from the Philippines. Singapore meanwhile needs 767 aicraft mechanics and Saudi Arabia, another 73.

Airbus Global Market Forecast says aviation growth until 2023 will need 23,500 pilots per annum, 6,000 of which will be in Asia Pacific. Within the current decade alone, 279 aircrafts will be delivered to seven airlines in India, 233 to 11 airlines in China, and 77 aircrafts to three airlines in the Middle East, with more orders coming.

The domestic air transport industry is also expected to grow by at least 10 percent per annum for the next five years.

The Philippines only has 770 commercial pilots, 400 of which are with PAL while the rest are with Cebu Pacific and other airlines. There are also around 1,500 aircraft mechanics employed in the domestic air transport industry.

Air Philippines, Zapanta disclosed, is already short of pilots. While its minimum requirement is 24, it is now left with 18. "Thus, it has to resort to tempering its scheduling of flights," he said. The problem is exacerbated by the fact that Air Philippines has ordered 18 additional aircrafts while Cebu Pacific has 12 new planes, with no pilots.

The ones being pirated, he explained, are those with seven to 10 years experience. "It is not easy to replace these pilots. Our aviation schools are producing very few new pilots. And it will take time to train them," he added. It takes around seven to 10 years to develop a captain and five to six years to become an aircraft mechanic, such that overseas airlines avoid the long lead time to develop mission-critical personnel by pirating ready-made staff.

All training investments (at least P8 million for a captain and P3 million for a mechanic A) are shouldered by domestic employers, Zapanta noted.

While local commercial pilots are receiving around $4,000 to $6,000 a month, these overseas carriers which are heavily subsidized like those in China and India are offering double the amount, something Philippine companies will not be able to do given the low cost of fares here. According to Zapanta, while pilots account for only five percent of their workforce, they also account for 20 percent of salaries.

The aviation industry has attempted to stop the "bleeding" by requiring the pilots to give a six-month notice before they can shift to another airline. The problem however is that the pilots just resign in advance, PAL officials said.

The local industry is proposing the passage of legislation that will penalize violation of the proposed moratorium as well as the six-month notice requirement by cancellation of the pilot’s license. "However, we also have a situation where other countries are willing to extend a new license just to recruit our pilots," Zapanta said.

It has also recommended an income tax holiday for local pilots, who Zapanta said are paying as much as 32-percent income tax compared to overseas workers who are not taxed on their income earned from abroad.

In its letter to Sto. Tomas, the aviation sector emphasized that if the current exodus of these highly-skilled mission critical staff continues, the impact on the operations of the local aviation industry as well as the subsequent loss of the sector’s contribution to the national economy would be severe and irreparable. In 2004, the air transport industry accounted for 16 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP).

They said the continued survival and viability of this industry depends on the stable number of mission-critical staff such as aircraft pilots, mechanics, planners, and engineers are required by regulatory agencies such as the US Federal Aviation Administration, the European Air Safety Agency, Hong Kong’s Civil Aviation Department, and the Philippines’ Air Transportation Office.

They noted that this will not be the first time that a moratorium on deployment of workers would be considered since in the early ’80s, government also implemented a similar intervention to contain a similar exodus to protect the national interest.

Solita Monsod has comments on this issue here. Essentially she argues that such a ban would be adverse to national interest and would just benefit Lucio Tan. She also points out that pilots receive much less than what PAL claims they do, and that it is not true that training costs are shouldered wholly by domestic airlines.

Back-door Forced Servitude on Pilots and Aircraft Technicians

If what the article below says is true, then it seems that lobbying from powerful special interest groups has found a sneaky way to force pilots and aircraft technicians to remain in the Philippines against their will without using legislation. This time, they have used a "memorandum circular" from a gov't agency. The idea of having the renewal of one's professional license dependent on the consent of one's current employer is blatantly stupid and repressive. If the gov't keeps up such practices, it will further alienate the middle class. Unbelievable...

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Local pilots willing to stay in RP given the right pay
By Mary Ann Ll. Reyes
The Philippine Star 03/14/2006

The Airline Pilots Association of the Philippines (ALPAP) has expressed its willingness to convince local commercial pilots not to transfer to foreign airlines if domestic airline companies agree to pay $4,000 to $6,000 to local pilots which the carriers claim they are already paying.

In an earlier interview, former Philippine Airlines president Avelino Zapanta said 747 pilots are being paid $6,000 a month while those flying 737s are receiving $4,000 per month.

ALPAP president Capt. Elmer Peña told The STAR that at present local pilots are receiving half of these amounts. "But if they are really willing to pay $4,000 to $6,000 a month, I will personally convince the pilots not to transfer to foreign airlines," he said. ALPAP has under its wing over 500 pilots belonging to different domestic airlines.

Jet Airways India, which according to sources needs around 700 new pilots over a two-year period, is willing to pay a B737 captain $8,700 a month net of tax, an A330/340 pilot $10,000 and a B777 captain $11,000, all net of tax, aside from other benefits like free accommodations, paid vacation leaves, to name a few.

The same Indian carrier is also offering maintenance engineers $4,000 plus housing while aircraft dispatchers are being offered $2,500 plus housing, as well as the required training and paid leaves. Local class A mechanics are receiving around $500 a month.

Another country that is actively recruiting Filipino commercial pilots is China which reportedly needs 10,000 new pilots over the next three to five years. India requires around 5,000 during the same period. Over the next 10 years, it is estimated that the requirement for pilots worldwide will reach 55,000.

The government is being urged to declare a five-year moratorium on the deployment of commercial pilots to foreign airlines to "stop the bleeding," even as they warned that the number of pilots in the country is dwindling to an alarming level.

Peña said a moratorium will not solve the problem as pilots who want to leave will find a way to leave the country. "If local airlines can afford to hire foreign pilots, then they can afford to give our pilots better pay," he pointed out.

But Peña warned that preventing pilots from leaving the country is unconstitutional as it would be violative of the right to labor, right to travel, right against involuntary servitude, among others.

He noted that the Malaysian courts have just recently ruled that Malaysian airline companies cannot prevent their pilots from leaving "if they cannot offer them better pay." Malaysia, like the Philippines, is among the worst hit in terms of pilot migration.

The ALPAP president called on all the major stakeholders, including government, to sit down and discuss the grant of incentives to aviation schools, even as he supported the call for income tax exemptions for domestic pilots.

The association expressed its concern over Memorandum Circular 01-06 issued by the Air Transportation Office (ATO) which requires pilots and mechanics, "in the interest of safety and security," to secure a clearance signed by their company prior to renewing their airman or maintenance technician license.

In a letter to ATO assistant secretary Nilo Jatico, Peña noted that the requirement is a great threat to the careers of airline personnel and stability of the aviation community both here and abroad. "Many countries permit Philippine pilots and mechanics to work in their country using their PI license. They must however maintain their license to remain employed by that country. Since foreign countries do not issue permission slips to ATO for their workers to renew their license, we must ask what is the intention of your office in regards to then Philippine aviation professionals working abroad," he said.

"Our employment was made possible by having earned our wings and issued our license, which is our personal responsibility to keep current for our continued employment. Now we are required to seek clearance from our employer and if no clearance is issued then our license cannot be renewed. What happens now to our employment? If this is not repression of the highest order, we do not know what it is," Peña said in another letter to Transportation Undersecretary Edward Pagunsan.