H. Resolution No. 1106
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H. Resolution No. 1106
Republic of the Philippines
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
Quezon City
THIRTEENTH CONGRESS
H. Resolution No. 1106
Introduced by Hon. Roseller L. Barinaga
EXPRESSING THE SENSE OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES ON THE URGENCY OF INSTITUTING REMEDIAL MEASURES TO ARREST THE BREWING MISSION-CRITICAL STATE OF PERSONNEL IN THE DOMESTIC AVIATION INDUSTRY AND OTHER STRATEGIC INDUSTRIES IN THE COUNTRY
WHEREAS, the viability, sustainability, stability and future of a number of vital domestic industries in the country, such as the aviation, electronics, shipping, steel, petrochemical, telecommunications and other strategic industries, are faced in a critical situation due to the acute shortage of skilled and professional personnel;
WHEREAS, this acute shortage of skilled and professional personnel the country is confronted with is attributed to and is perceived to be the consequence of the unchecked outward migration of many of the country’s skilled and professional personnel in the abovementioned industries;
WHEREAS, the mission-critical personnel of these industries, to mention, the commercial pilots, aircraft mechanics, painters, planners, ground and cabin crews for the domestic aviation and airline industry; the IT engineers and technicians for the electronics industry; the ship engineers and technicians for the shipping industry; the metallurgical and plant engineers for the steel industry; the chemical engineers for the petrochemical industry; the radio frequency engineers for the telecommunications industry; and other technical and professional staff of other industries, demand a tedious and long process of training, not to mention the costs invested by particular industries for such training and professionalization of their personnel and staff;
WHEREAS, the professional advancements and training, whether in-plant, off-plant and overseas, afforded by the industries on the personnel and staff are primary aimed at providing their respective clienteles and the general public with the best, safest and most professional services they can afford to give pursuant to the required international norms and standards;
WHEREAS, other countries that are confronted with similar shortages of pilots, aviation engineers, metallurgical engineers, chemical engineers, radio frequency engineers and the likes, have usuriously engaged in the practice of poaching or pirating of these mission-critical skills and talents, including fresh graduates or those who have just undergone expensive industry training;
WHEREAS, poachers of these skills and talents have even resorted and used counterfeit and illegal means by inviting concerned industry personnel and staff as tourists and providing the same with working visas upon arrival in the poaching countries;
WHEREAS, other countries, such as the United States of America, have implemented strong regulatory policies, including but not limited to enforcing a ban, to deter the trend of out-migration of skills and talents they deem necessary to maintain and protect strategic and vital industries;
WHEREAS, said countries have utilized such imposition of strong regulatory policies on the basis of promoting national security;
WHEREAS, the provisions of Sections 5 and 31 of Republic Act No. 8042, otherwise known as the Migrant Workers and Overseas Filipinos Act of 1995, empower the State 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 other highly-skilled Filipinos” “in priority development areas of the public and private sectors;
WHEREAS, the circumstances confronting the aforesaid industries are perceived to have serious national security implications and economic repercussions as they affect air transportation, tourism, commerce, construction and chains of economic linkages in the country;
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED AS IT IS HEREBY RESOLVED, by the House of Representatives in session assembled, that the House of Representatives expresses its sense on the urgency of instituting remedial measures to arrest the brewing mission-critical state of personnel in the domestic aviation industry and other strategic industries in the country;
RESOLVED, FURTHER, that pursuant to the abovementioned problems, and in response to the brewing mission-critical state of personnel in the domestic aviation industry and other strategic industries in the country, the Philippine government shall declare above problems as critical to national interest;
RESOLVED, FURTHERMORE, that the Secretary of Trade and Industry; the Secretary of Foreign Affairs, Secretary of Labor and Employment and the Administrator of the Philippine Overseas Employment Agency (POEA) be directed to draw up, in consultation with the affected industries, within sixty (60) days upon approval of this Resolution by the House of Representatives in session assembled, appropriate measures as may be necessary to regulate, control, and arrest the brewing mission-critical state of personnel in the domestic aviation industry and other strategic industries in the country, including the temporary suspension and/or the imposition of a moratorium on the overseas deployment of such skills and talents;
RESOLVED, FINALLY, that, the House Committee on Labor and Employment be directed to conduct hearings, consultations and investigations, in aid of legislation, with affected industries on the appropriate legislative and remedial measures needed to secure their skills and talent requirements for the survival of these industries.
ROSELLER L. BARINAGA
Representative, 2nd District, Zamboanga del Norte
The Brewing Critical State of Demise:
Arresting the roots of brain-drain syndrome affecting certain domestic industries
By ROSELLER L. BARINAGA
Representative
2nd District, Zamboanga del Norte
Mr. Speaker, today this representation rises on a question of personal and collective privilege, to call on government to take action on the brewing issue that threatens the viability, sustainability, stability and future of our national economy.
Mr. Speaker, this representation refers to the unchecked and unregulated outflow of mission-critical skills and talents affecting the few remaining but strategic industries that we have in the country. Mr. Speaker, this representation is talking about industries such as the aviation, electronics, shipping, steel, petrochemical, telecommunications and other strategic industries. These industries, Mr. Speaker, are faced in a critical situation due to the acute shortage of skilled and professional personnel. Unless immediate remedial measures are put in place, some of these industries, in particular, the aviation industry, might ground to halt.
The questions that this representation wishes to bring before this Chamber, Mr. Speaker, are:
1. Can our country afford not to have a vibrant aviation industry of its own?
2. Can we afford to see the continuous erosion of our electronics industry, which accounts for more than 70 percent of our exports, amidst the on-going influx of our highly technical people to other countries for purposes of greener pastures?
3. Can our country, as an archipelago, with all the advantages over other neighboring countries in Asia, afford to do away with the shipping industry?
4. Can this country afford without a mobile phone industry and deprive millions of our people of their cherished privileged communications at their most convenient way?
5. Can we forego with our steel and petrochemical industries which have greatly contributed to the national coffers?
Mr. Speaker, just today, this representation filed a Resolution entitled “Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives on the urgency of instituting remedial measures to arrest the brewing mission-critical state of personnel in the domestic aviation industry and other strategic industries in the country” with the noble goal of addressing the problems brought about by the out-migration of many of our skilled and professional personnel for better opportunities abroad. In particular, Mr. Speaker, this representation requests that the Secretary of Trade and Industry; the Secretary of Foreign Affairs, Secretary of Labor and Employment and the Administrator of the Philippine Overseas Employment Agency (POEA) be directed to draw up, in consultation with the affected industries, appropriate measures as may be necessary to regulate, control, and arrest the brewing mission-critical state of personnel in the domestic aviation industry and other strategic industries in the country, including the temporary suspension and/or the imposition of a moratorium on the overseas deployment of such skills and talents.
Mr. Speaker, the provisions of Sections 5 and 31 of Republic Act No. 8042, otherwise known as the Migrant Workers and Overseas Filipinos Act of 1995, empower the State 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 other highly-skilled Filipinos” “in priority development areas of the public and private sectors.
It is also proposed in said resolution, Mr. Speaker, that, as a matter of urgency and to arrest further complications to the effects of brain drain syndrome affecting our domestic industries, the Philippine government declares such problems as critical to national interest. To effectively deal with the various issues involved, Mr. Speaker, this representation further proposes for the House Committee on Labor and Employment to conduct hearings, consultations and investigations, in aid of legislation, with affected industries on the appropriate legislative and remedial measures needed to secure their skills and talent requirements for the survival of aforesaid industries.
Mr. Speaker, the acute shortage of skilled and professional personnel our domestic industries are confronted with is attributed to and is perceived to be a resultant consequence of the unchecked outward migration of many of our skilled and professional personnel, to mention, the commercial pilots, aircraft mechanics, painters, planners, ground and cabin crews for the domestic aviation and airline industry; the IT engineers and technicians for the electronics industry; the ship engineers and technicians for the shipping industry; the metallurgical and plant engineers for the steel industry; the chemical engineers for the petrochemical industry; the radio frequency engineers for the telecommunications industry; and other technical and professional staff of other industries. The making of these mission-critical personnel was not done overnight by our industries, Mr. Speaker. The professionalization of these personnel and staff demand a tedious and long process of training, not to mention the costs invested by our domestic industries.
Mr. Speaker, the professional advancements and training afforded on these personnel and staff, whether in-plant, off-plant and overseas, are part of the greater social responsibility that our domestic industries have to our people. These training are primary aimed at providing their respective clienteles and the general public with the best, safest and most professional services they can afford to give pursuant to the required international norms and standards.
It is so unfortunate, Mr. Speaker, that other countries that are confronted with similar shortages of pilots, aviation engineers, metallurgical engineers, chemical engineers, radio frequency engineers and the likes, have usuriously engaged in the practice of poaching or pirating of these mission-critical skills and talents, including fresh graduates or those who have just undergone expensive industry training, to the detriment of our very own domestic industries. Mr. Speaker, poachers of these skills and talents have even resorted and used counterfeit and illegal means by inviting concerned industry personnel and staff as tourists and providing the same with working visas upon arrival in the poaching countries.
In other countries, like in the United States, they have implemented strong regulatory policies, including enforcing a ban, to deter the trend of out-migration of skills and talents they deem necessary to maintain and protect strategic and vital industries consistent with national security demands.
The circumstances confronting our domestic industries, Mr. Speaker, have serious national security implications and economic repercussions. They will consequently affect air transportation, tourism, commerce, construction and chains of economic linkages in the country.
Our aviation industry, Mr. Speaker, is comprised basically of two segments. The first segment are the airlines consisting of scheduled and unscheduled carriers, charter and air taxi operators including the general aviation sector. The second segment are the service providers consisting of the maintenance, repair, overhaul organizations otherwise known as the MRO, the ground handling agents, the caterers, the ticketing and reservation agents, the terminal services both for passengers and cargo, and aviation schools, among many others. With barely a few years on their own and stepping into the competent shoes of their predecessors, our Maintenance, Repair, and Overhaul or MRO organizations such as Lufthansa Technik Philippines, Aviation +, and Miascor, have established the Philippines as a promising hub for aircraft maintenance, repair and overhaul in the region. At least 15,000 are directly employed by the industry which impacts on the growth of tourism and commerce.
Daily, Mr. Speaker, 25,000 passengers and almost 500 tons of cargo traverse the 31 international and 21 domestic destinations of our flag carriers. To provide the cradle for this technology, overtime the country has developed a network of four international airports, four alternate international airports, 12 trunkline airports, 36 secondary airports, 29 feeder airports and over 200 airstrips all over the archipelago from Bosco to Jolo.
Perhaps many members of this Chamber will remember how when Philippine Airlines closed shop for a few weeks in 1998, the economy grounded to a halt as sea and farm produce from Mindanao rot at origins for lack of air transportation to final destinations, particularly the highly perishable tuna that our airlines carry all the way to international destinations. Hastily, a foreign airline was tapped to serve Cebu and Davao but consequently gave up. These was a general feeling of loss, as if a beloved member of our family passed away, as the airline indeed had become family after decades of service. Thomas Greene was indeed correct to say “you will never miss the water till the well runs dry”.
Mr. Speaker, my colleagues, today, we stand on the brink of a similar tragedy.
In the past decades, the poaching of our commercial pilots, aircraft mechanics, and other critical skills in the domestic aviation industry came so infrequently with decades in between – that was when the Middle East countries modernized their Air Force, organized their own flag carriers, and set up maintenance facilities that they came to the Philippines and took away many of our skilled personnel from our flag carrier.
In the past five years, however, Mr. Speaker, the poaching practices have become a cottage industry all its own with recruitment agencies serving the interest of their overseas principals and focusing their sights on our technical manpower particularly pilots and mechanics. One agency specializes on recruiting for MROs in Singapore, another for principals in the Middle East, Taiwan, and Saipan. Still some headhunters have lodged themselves in some plush hotels in Metro Manila and surreptitiously entire our mission-critical skilled workers for outright hiring. If this is left unchecked, Mr. Speaker, this invasion will cripple not only our aviation industry but also topple the pillars of this country’s national economy.
Indeed, the statistics at the POEA are alarming. From 2000 to 2005, Mr. Speaker, 1,159 aircraft mechanics and technicians have left the Philippines. These are in addition to those who were directly hired by foreign employers thus evading the POEA count. An airline reported that some 140 pilots left their employ during the same period. This data, Mr. Speaker, is worth alarming since the Air Transportation Office reveals that there are only 700 commercial pilots actively employed by the industry.
The looming crisis, Mr. Speaker, is further evident from the active job orders pending at the POEA.
• Singapore needs 767 aircraft mechanics; Hong Kong and Qatar are both open with no specific numbers. Saudi Arabia needs 73.
• Singapore also needs 50 junior Aircraft Mechanics.
• It is generally conceded that China will need 10,000 pilots in the next 20 years; India, 3,500 pilots in the next 5 years.
• Airbus Global Market Forecast, 2004 says aviation growth until 2023 will need 23,500 pilots per annum, with 6,000 of which will be in Asia-Pacific.
• The orders include aircraft painters, ticketing and reservation agents, and even airport representatives.
The same study by Airbus predicts that for the period 2004 to 2023, passenger traffic will grow by 5% per annum which will require a delivery of 16,601 new passenger aircrafts. Even today, Mr. Speaker, we see hundreds of new aircrafts being ordered by airlines of China, India, and those of the Middle East. A compilation of aircraft orders from aviation trace magazines indicate within the current decade 279 aircraft will be delivered to seven airline of India; 233 aircraft to 11 airlines of China and 77 aircraft will be delivered to 3 airlines of the Middle East. And yet, more orders are coming.
What is more distressing for our country, Mr. Speaker, is that the growth in aircraft fleets is not matched by provisions for training new personnel to man these fleets of new aircraft. It is evident that for these airlines, the pilots, aircraft mechanics, and other mission-critical personnel of the Philippine aviation industry are ripe for the picking. Heavily subsidized by their respective governments, they can easily offer double or even triple what wage packages are offered by our local employers because they offer short-term contractual employments and they invest very little or not at all in manpower training and development.
Because they need a pre-qualified staff ready to jump-start their expended fleets, their recruitment policy is to harvest the pick of our local aviation personnel. This deals a heavy blow to our domestic aviation industry since for each full-pledged aircraft mechanic, the training investment would have been at least Php 2.5 million in the basic training modules that are required and prescribed by authorities over a period of at least 5 to 6 years. Mr. Speaker, for the information of this Chamber, for pilots, the training investment is much higher since for a First Officer, the individual training investment is more than Php 8 million and at least 6 to 7 years of experience.
What aggravates the whole distressing situation, Mr. Speaker, is that the current capacity of our schools offering aviation0related courses is so low that we are losing our aviation people faster than we can replenish them. Perhaps more than the levels of skill, what the foreign predators are really after is the avoidance of long lead time to produce skilled workers.
Mr. Speaker, the immediate windfall from the foreign currency remittances of our overseas Filipino workers make 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, in this case the domestic aviation and airline industry.
This representation believes, Mr. Speaker, that after three decades of deploying our skilled workers overseas, we should begin to set things aright by choosing primordial national interest over the short-term relief the foreign remittances provides. This representation, therefore, Mr. Speaker, calls on the honorable members of this Congress to re-examine this national policy that our country has embarked on and for the Department of Labor and Employment and its agencies, particularly the POEA to take immediate action and shield the country from the impending scary nightmare to our national economy and survival as a nation.
Mr. Speaker, I stand here before this august Chamber with all the convictions because I believe that it is incumbent upon us, as representatives of our people, to be their vanguard. Mr. Speaker, I am honestly convinced that we ought to stand by our sacred duty, as legislators, to keep our economy on an even keel by coming up with policies and legislation needed to stabilize and further enhance our critical industries.
Mr. Speaker, the House Committee on Labor and Employment, as stipulated in this representation’s filed House Resolution, has been tasked to review our existing national policies concerning exportation of our skilled labor. If indeed the country seeks to benefit from the demand for these mission-critical skills by other countries, the government ought to invest resources in training the personnel for these industries rather than leave the burden to private employers who are defenseless to the predations of illegal recruiters. There is, likewise, an imperative, Mr. Speaker, to review the Charters of certain state colleges and universities with the end of re-orienting them toward sunrise professions and skills such as aviation and telecoms.
Mr. Speaker, there is no way out for this country to progress except to strengthen our own foothold. While we need to be forward-looking, Mr. Speaker, we also ought to be inwardly interested. As the old Latin maxim say, NEMO DAT QUOD NON ABIT (You cannot give what you do not have), let me say this also, unless we have so much richness to make us live for a lifetime, let us not give. Rather let us keep what we have, enrich this nation with brilliance, talents and skills because our country deserve the best. Our intellectual heritage and skills are urgently needed for the progress is this nation.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
Quezon City
THIRTEENTH CONGRESS
H. Resolution No. 1106
Introduced by Hon. Roseller L. Barinaga
EXPRESSING THE SENSE OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES ON THE URGENCY OF INSTITUTING REMEDIAL MEASURES TO ARREST THE BREWING MISSION-CRITICAL STATE OF PERSONNEL IN THE DOMESTIC AVIATION INDUSTRY AND OTHER STRATEGIC INDUSTRIES IN THE COUNTRY
WHEREAS, the viability, sustainability, stability and future of a number of vital domestic industries in the country, such as the aviation, electronics, shipping, steel, petrochemical, telecommunications and other strategic industries, are faced in a critical situation due to the acute shortage of skilled and professional personnel;
WHEREAS, this acute shortage of skilled and professional personnel the country is confronted with is attributed to and is perceived to be the consequence of the unchecked outward migration of many of the country’s skilled and professional personnel in the abovementioned industries;
WHEREAS, the mission-critical personnel of these industries, to mention, the commercial pilots, aircraft mechanics, painters, planners, ground and cabin crews for the domestic aviation and airline industry; the IT engineers and technicians for the electronics industry; the ship engineers and technicians for the shipping industry; the metallurgical and plant engineers for the steel industry; the chemical engineers for the petrochemical industry; the radio frequency engineers for the telecommunications industry; and other technical and professional staff of other industries, demand a tedious and long process of training, not to mention the costs invested by particular industries for such training and professionalization of their personnel and staff;
WHEREAS, the professional advancements and training, whether in-plant, off-plant and overseas, afforded by the industries on the personnel and staff are primary aimed at providing their respective clienteles and the general public with the best, safest and most professional services they can afford to give pursuant to the required international norms and standards;
WHEREAS, other countries that are confronted with similar shortages of pilots, aviation engineers, metallurgical engineers, chemical engineers, radio frequency engineers and the likes, have usuriously engaged in the practice of poaching or pirating of these mission-critical skills and talents, including fresh graduates or those who have just undergone expensive industry training;
WHEREAS, poachers of these skills and talents have even resorted and used counterfeit and illegal means by inviting concerned industry personnel and staff as tourists and providing the same with working visas upon arrival in the poaching countries;
WHEREAS, other countries, such as the United States of America, have implemented strong regulatory policies, including but not limited to enforcing a ban, to deter the trend of out-migration of skills and talents they deem necessary to maintain and protect strategic and vital industries;
WHEREAS, said countries have utilized such imposition of strong regulatory policies on the basis of promoting national security;
WHEREAS, the provisions of Sections 5 and 31 of Republic Act No. 8042, otherwise known as the Migrant Workers and Overseas Filipinos Act of 1995, empower the State 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 other highly-skilled Filipinos” “in priority development areas of the public and private sectors;
WHEREAS, the circumstances confronting the aforesaid industries are perceived to have serious national security implications and economic repercussions as they affect air transportation, tourism, commerce, construction and chains of economic linkages in the country;
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED AS IT IS HEREBY RESOLVED, by the House of Representatives in session assembled, that the House of Representatives expresses its sense on the urgency of instituting remedial measures to arrest the brewing mission-critical state of personnel in the domestic aviation industry and other strategic industries in the country;
RESOLVED, FURTHER, that pursuant to the abovementioned problems, and in response to the brewing mission-critical state of personnel in the domestic aviation industry and other strategic industries in the country, the Philippine government shall declare above problems as critical to national interest;
RESOLVED, FURTHERMORE, that the Secretary of Trade and Industry; the Secretary of Foreign Affairs, Secretary of Labor and Employment and the Administrator of the Philippine Overseas Employment Agency (POEA) be directed to draw up, in consultation with the affected industries, within sixty (60) days upon approval of this Resolution by the House of Representatives in session assembled, appropriate measures as may be necessary to regulate, control, and arrest the brewing mission-critical state of personnel in the domestic aviation industry and other strategic industries in the country, including the temporary suspension and/or the imposition of a moratorium on the overseas deployment of such skills and talents;
RESOLVED, FINALLY, that, the House Committee on Labor and Employment be directed to conduct hearings, consultations and investigations, in aid of legislation, with affected industries on the appropriate legislative and remedial measures needed to secure their skills and talent requirements for the survival of these industries.
ROSELLER L. BARINAGA
Representative, 2nd District, Zamboanga del Norte
The Brewing Critical State of Demise:
Arresting the roots of brain-drain syndrome affecting certain domestic industries
By ROSELLER L. BARINAGA
Representative
2nd District, Zamboanga del Norte
Mr. Speaker, today this representation rises on a question of personal and collective privilege, to call on government to take action on the brewing issue that threatens the viability, sustainability, stability and future of our national economy.
Mr. Speaker, this representation refers to the unchecked and unregulated outflow of mission-critical skills and talents affecting the few remaining but strategic industries that we have in the country. Mr. Speaker, this representation is talking about industries such as the aviation, electronics, shipping, steel, petrochemical, telecommunications and other strategic industries. These industries, Mr. Speaker, are faced in a critical situation due to the acute shortage of skilled and professional personnel. Unless immediate remedial measures are put in place, some of these industries, in particular, the aviation industry, might ground to halt.
The questions that this representation wishes to bring before this Chamber, Mr. Speaker, are:
1. Can our country afford not to have a vibrant aviation industry of its own?
2. Can we afford to see the continuous erosion of our electronics industry, which accounts for more than 70 percent of our exports, amidst the on-going influx of our highly technical people to other countries for purposes of greener pastures?
3. Can our country, as an archipelago, with all the advantages over other neighboring countries in Asia, afford to do away with the shipping industry?
4. Can this country afford without a mobile phone industry and deprive millions of our people of their cherished privileged communications at their most convenient way?
5. Can we forego with our steel and petrochemical industries which have greatly contributed to the national coffers?
Mr. Speaker, just today, this representation filed a Resolution entitled “Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives on the urgency of instituting remedial measures to arrest the brewing mission-critical state of personnel in the domestic aviation industry and other strategic industries in the country” with the noble goal of addressing the problems brought about by the out-migration of many of our skilled and professional personnel for better opportunities abroad. In particular, Mr. Speaker, this representation requests that the Secretary of Trade and Industry; the Secretary of Foreign Affairs, Secretary of Labor and Employment and the Administrator of the Philippine Overseas Employment Agency (POEA) be directed to draw up, in consultation with the affected industries, appropriate measures as may be necessary to regulate, control, and arrest the brewing mission-critical state of personnel in the domestic aviation industry and other strategic industries in the country, including the temporary suspension and/or the imposition of a moratorium on the overseas deployment of such skills and talents.
Mr. Speaker, the provisions of Sections 5 and 31 of Republic Act No. 8042, otherwise known as the Migrant Workers and Overseas Filipinos Act of 1995, empower the State 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 other highly-skilled Filipinos” “in priority development areas of the public and private sectors.
It is also proposed in said resolution, Mr. Speaker, that, as a matter of urgency and to arrest further complications to the effects of brain drain syndrome affecting our domestic industries, the Philippine government declares such problems as critical to national interest. To effectively deal with the various issues involved, Mr. Speaker, this representation further proposes for the House Committee on Labor and Employment to conduct hearings, consultations and investigations, in aid of legislation, with affected industries on the appropriate legislative and remedial measures needed to secure their skills and talent requirements for the survival of aforesaid industries.
Mr. Speaker, the acute shortage of skilled and professional personnel our domestic industries are confronted with is attributed to and is perceived to be a resultant consequence of the unchecked outward migration of many of our skilled and professional personnel, to mention, the commercial pilots, aircraft mechanics, painters, planners, ground and cabin crews for the domestic aviation and airline industry; the IT engineers and technicians for the electronics industry; the ship engineers and technicians for the shipping industry; the metallurgical and plant engineers for the steel industry; the chemical engineers for the petrochemical industry; the radio frequency engineers for the telecommunications industry; and other technical and professional staff of other industries. The making of these mission-critical personnel was not done overnight by our industries, Mr. Speaker. The professionalization of these personnel and staff demand a tedious and long process of training, not to mention the costs invested by our domestic industries.
Mr. Speaker, the professional advancements and training afforded on these personnel and staff, whether in-plant, off-plant and overseas, are part of the greater social responsibility that our domestic industries have to our people. These training are primary aimed at providing their respective clienteles and the general public with the best, safest and most professional services they can afford to give pursuant to the required international norms and standards.
It is so unfortunate, Mr. Speaker, that other countries that are confronted with similar shortages of pilots, aviation engineers, metallurgical engineers, chemical engineers, radio frequency engineers and the likes, have usuriously engaged in the practice of poaching or pirating of these mission-critical skills and talents, including fresh graduates or those who have just undergone expensive industry training, to the detriment of our very own domestic industries. Mr. Speaker, poachers of these skills and talents have even resorted and used counterfeit and illegal means by inviting concerned industry personnel and staff as tourists and providing the same with working visas upon arrival in the poaching countries.
In other countries, like in the United States, they have implemented strong regulatory policies, including enforcing a ban, to deter the trend of out-migration of skills and talents they deem necessary to maintain and protect strategic and vital industries consistent with national security demands.
The circumstances confronting our domestic industries, Mr. Speaker, have serious national security implications and economic repercussions. They will consequently affect air transportation, tourism, commerce, construction and chains of economic linkages in the country.
Our aviation industry, Mr. Speaker, is comprised basically of two segments. The first segment are the airlines consisting of scheduled and unscheduled carriers, charter and air taxi operators including the general aviation sector. The second segment are the service providers consisting of the maintenance, repair, overhaul organizations otherwise known as the MRO, the ground handling agents, the caterers, the ticketing and reservation agents, the terminal services both for passengers and cargo, and aviation schools, among many others. With barely a few years on their own and stepping into the competent shoes of their predecessors, our Maintenance, Repair, and Overhaul or MRO organizations such as Lufthansa Technik Philippines, Aviation +, and Miascor, have established the Philippines as a promising hub for aircraft maintenance, repair and overhaul in the region. At least 15,000 are directly employed by the industry which impacts on the growth of tourism and commerce.
Daily, Mr. Speaker, 25,000 passengers and almost 500 tons of cargo traverse the 31 international and 21 domestic destinations of our flag carriers. To provide the cradle for this technology, overtime the country has developed a network of four international airports, four alternate international airports, 12 trunkline airports, 36 secondary airports, 29 feeder airports and over 200 airstrips all over the archipelago from Bosco to Jolo.
Perhaps many members of this Chamber will remember how when Philippine Airlines closed shop for a few weeks in 1998, the economy grounded to a halt as sea and farm produce from Mindanao rot at origins for lack of air transportation to final destinations, particularly the highly perishable tuna that our airlines carry all the way to international destinations. Hastily, a foreign airline was tapped to serve Cebu and Davao but consequently gave up. These was a general feeling of loss, as if a beloved member of our family passed away, as the airline indeed had become family after decades of service. Thomas Greene was indeed correct to say “you will never miss the water till the well runs dry”.
Mr. Speaker, my colleagues, today, we stand on the brink of a similar tragedy.
In the past decades, the poaching of our commercial pilots, aircraft mechanics, and other critical skills in the domestic aviation industry came so infrequently with decades in between – that was when the Middle East countries modernized their Air Force, organized their own flag carriers, and set up maintenance facilities that they came to the Philippines and took away many of our skilled personnel from our flag carrier.
In the past five years, however, Mr. Speaker, the poaching practices have become a cottage industry all its own with recruitment agencies serving the interest of their overseas principals and focusing their sights on our technical manpower particularly pilots and mechanics. One agency specializes on recruiting for MROs in Singapore, another for principals in the Middle East, Taiwan, and Saipan. Still some headhunters have lodged themselves in some plush hotels in Metro Manila and surreptitiously entire our mission-critical skilled workers for outright hiring. If this is left unchecked, Mr. Speaker, this invasion will cripple not only our aviation industry but also topple the pillars of this country’s national economy.
Indeed, the statistics at the POEA are alarming. From 2000 to 2005, Mr. Speaker, 1,159 aircraft mechanics and technicians have left the Philippines. These are in addition to those who were directly hired by foreign employers thus evading the POEA count. An airline reported that some 140 pilots left their employ during the same period. This data, Mr. Speaker, is worth alarming since the Air Transportation Office reveals that there are only 700 commercial pilots actively employed by the industry.
The looming crisis, Mr. Speaker, is further evident from the active job orders pending at the POEA.
• Singapore needs 767 aircraft mechanics; Hong Kong and Qatar are both open with no specific numbers. Saudi Arabia needs 73.
• Singapore also needs 50 junior Aircraft Mechanics.
• It is generally conceded that China will need 10,000 pilots in the next 20 years; India, 3,500 pilots in the next 5 years.
• Airbus Global Market Forecast, 2004 says aviation growth until 2023 will need 23,500 pilots per annum, with 6,000 of which will be in Asia-Pacific.
• The orders include aircraft painters, ticketing and reservation agents, and even airport representatives.
The same study by Airbus predicts that for the period 2004 to 2023, passenger traffic will grow by 5% per annum which will require a delivery of 16,601 new passenger aircrafts. Even today, Mr. Speaker, we see hundreds of new aircrafts being ordered by airlines of China, India, and those of the Middle East. A compilation of aircraft orders from aviation trace magazines indicate within the current decade 279 aircraft will be delivered to seven airline of India; 233 aircraft to 11 airlines of China and 77 aircraft will be delivered to 3 airlines of the Middle East. And yet, more orders are coming.
What is more distressing for our country, Mr. Speaker, is that the growth in aircraft fleets is not matched by provisions for training new personnel to man these fleets of new aircraft. It is evident that for these airlines, the pilots, aircraft mechanics, and other mission-critical personnel of the Philippine aviation industry are ripe for the picking. Heavily subsidized by their respective governments, they can easily offer double or even triple what wage packages are offered by our local employers because they offer short-term contractual employments and they invest very little or not at all in manpower training and development.
Because they need a pre-qualified staff ready to jump-start their expended fleets, their recruitment policy is to harvest the pick of our local aviation personnel. This deals a heavy blow to our domestic aviation industry since for each full-pledged aircraft mechanic, the training investment would have been at least Php 2.5 million in the basic training modules that are required and prescribed by authorities over a period of at least 5 to 6 years. Mr. Speaker, for the information of this Chamber, for pilots, the training investment is much higher since for a First Officer, the individual training investment is more than Php 8 million and at least 6 to 7 years of experience.
What aggravates the whole distressing situation, Mr. Speaker, is that the current capacity of our schools offering aviation0related courses is so low that we are losing our aviation people faster than we can replenish them. Perhaps more than the levels of skill, what the foreign predators are really after is the avoidance of long lead time to produce skilled workers.
Mr. Speaker, the immediate windfall from the foreign currency remittances of our overseas Filipino workers make 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, in this case the domestic aviation and airline industry.
This representation believes, Mr. Speaker, that after three decades of deploying our skilled workers overseas, we should begin to set things aright by choosing primordial national interest over the short-term relief the foreign remittances provides. This representation, therefore, Mr. Speaker, calls on the honorable members of this Congress to re-examine this national policy that our country has embarked on and for the Department of Labor and Employment and its agencies, particularly the POEA to take immediate action and shield the country from the impending scary nightmare to our national economy and survival as a nation.
Mr. Speaker, I stand here before this august Chamber with all the convictions because I believe that it is incumbent upon us, as representatives of our people, to be their vanguard. Mr. Speaker, I am honestly convinced that we ought to stand by our sacred duty, as legislators, to keep our economy on an even keel by coming up with policies and legislation needed to stabilize and further enhance our critical industries.
Mr. Speaker, the House Committee on Labor and Employment, as stipulated in this representation’s filed House Resolution, has been tasked to review our existing national policies concerning exportation of our skilled labor. If indeed the country seeks to benefit from the demand for these mission-critical skills by other countries, the government ought to invest resources in training the personnel for these industries rather than leave the burden to private employers who are defenseless to the predations of illegal recruiters. There is, likewise, an imperative, Mr. Speaker, to review the Charters of certain state colleges and universities with the end of re-orienting them toward sunrise professions and skills such as aviation and telecoms.
Mr. Speaker, there is no way out for this country to progress except to strengthen our own foothold. While we need to be forward-looking, Mr. Speaker, we also ought to be inwardly interested. As the old Latin maxim say, NEMO DAT QUOD NON ABIT (You cannot give what you do not have), let me say this also, unless we have so much richness to make us live for a lifetime, let us not give. Rather let us keep what we have, enrich this nation with brilliance, talents and skills because our country deserve the best. Our intellectual heritage and skills are urgently needed for the progress is this nation.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
