Manila Bulletin...
Action to stem exodus of pilots sought
Manila Bulletin Online
Tue Mar 14, 2006
An alliance of organizations composed of overseas Filipinos and their families warned the local aviation industry yesterday that the current exodus of pilots and airline workers will worsen unless a comprehensive response is formulated.
"On the one hand, the aviation industry is alarmed over the exodus of its highly skilled workers but on the other, the Arroyo administration is vigorously "marketing" these same workers overseas. In this context, the industry’s proposed moratorium of a band-aid solution will do little to stem the hemorrhage caused by Malacañang’s adherence to World Trade Organization policies," Connie Bragas Regalado, Migrante International chairwomn, said.
Recently, the local aviation industry submitted a proposal to the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) for a five-year moratorium on the overseas recruitment of pilots, aircraft engineers, and aviation mechanics.
POEA statistics showed that 1,159 highly trained aircraft mechanics had left the country since 2003.
About 120 pilots had left since 2000. Fifteen Philippine Airlines pilots had already left this year.
"The proposal to the POEA will surely fall on deaf ears as the POEA also has an avowed target of marketing and exporting one million workers annually, as per an Arroyo directive," she said.
Regalado added that Arroyo’s subservience to neoliberal globalization interests, through agreements like the World Trade Organization’s General Agreement on Trades and Services (Mode IV), also aggravates the exodus of workers. The GATS Mode IV provision allows the movement of people from one country to another to provide services to the detriment of Third World countries.
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