PBBM backs plan to retain IT, healthcare workers in Phl

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. expressed his support for the plan to continue training people in the IT and health care sector and make them work in the Philippines for at least two to three years before they can go work abroad.

According to Malacañang on Friday, the President said that the move would help with the lack of workers in those areas as a plan to fix the issue.

“It’s fine (because) if they find jobs abroad, that’s good for them. But our problem here is we lose the talent that we train… that we took through the certification system,” Marcos said during the 5th meeting with the Private Sector Advisory Council-Jobs Sector Group (PSAC-Jobs) in Malacañang earlier this week.

Marcos said one solution to solve “brain drain” issues in the healthcare and IT sectors could be through giving the workers in those sectors some grants with the condition that they stay in the country for up to three years.

This is due to the fact that "fewer talented Filipinos are available to support those industries as more and more skilled workers seek greener pastures abroad."

“After that then they’re free to go,” Marcos said.

In the same meetng, PSAC representatives acknowledged that the attractive compensation packages offered by the United States, United Kingdom, Australian, and European businesses and healthcare institutions were not comparable to those found in the local labor markets for the IT and healthcare industries.

Thus, mandating service for a set period of time was a reasonable compromise.

"I think what we can do is to continue to offer certificate programs and train their skills. I think we can do that. There’s no way for us to retain them,” Teresita Sy-Coson of SM Investments Corp. told Marcos, who presented the proposals on behalf of the PSAC Jobs sector.

The Department of Health, the Commission on Higher Education, the Department of Migrant Workers, and the Department of Foreign Affairs might negotiate with other nations on employing Filipino workers if a coordinated game plan was prioritized, according to PSAC-Jobs.

Prior to this, the President gave the DOH, CHED, DMW, and DFA instructions to collaborate in order to negotiate a strong stance on the matter with the foreign countries. This was a positive step, according to the PSAC.