THE TREND toward which our workers in various fields and professions are moving — that of going abroad — is putting our country at a great disadvantage.

True, we are benefiting in terms of dollar remittances which our country badly need to boost our ailing economy, but our own need for competent workforce is dangerously at stake.

We say “dangerously at stake” because we also need the services of these workers as much - if not more - as other nations do.

Take for instance our nurses. If we make a random survey in local hospitals alone, it is very evident that most of them are inferiorly staffed in terms of nurses. By this, we mean that the more experienced and learned nurses have already gone to foreign shores for better employment, thus leaving behind the neophytes who have barely gotten out of school. Now, these hospitals handle the most delicate job of treating the sick and saving lives of people. If the medical staffs manning them lack training, we can just imagine how perilous it is for the millions of Filipinos to entrust their safety with incompetent hands.

Same is true in the field of education. We know that the education of the youth is the most vital step in achieving our country’s goal of full development. Yet, where are the better teachers now? They have flown to other countries that can give them higher pay and better opportunities.

We take pride in having the greatest number of overseas workers. We consider it an honor that foreign employers take preference for Filipinos. But alas, while other countries benefit from the expertise of our OFWs, here we are, contenting ourselves with the residual working class.