This comes as a surprise

Saturday, December 20, 2008

While reading Inquirer.net tonight, I saw this screaming headline: 7 in 10 Filipinos won't give up on RP.

How about that? This contradicts completely what I think is the popular belief: That many Filipinos would jump at the chance to migrate. I mean, why do you think many are back in school to take up nursing or caregiving? Just the other night, one of my boardmates who took the nursing board last month told me there were 80,000 of them!

According to this Pulse Asia survey, 54% of Filipinos are actually staying put. Of the 1,200 respondents, only 20% said they would do so when asked what they will do if it were possible to migrate to another country. I don't know about you, but to me this is absolutely surprising to say the least.

All this time, I have held the belief that many Filipinos have lost hope in this country and that, if they could, would leave in a heart beat. I for one considered this option two or three years ago when I almost gave up on my dream to finish law school.

But I don't blame those who are leaving and I've got the highest respect for our OFWs. The truth is, we will be relatively fine while the rest of the world reels from the current economic crunch. We have $30 billion in foreign reserves, virtually all of it from remittances.

Still, for this country to truly reform and begin the slow march to recovery, we need our middle class, the same professionals who are now leaving in alarming number. They constitute our educated, hard-working social segment, who are numerous enough to influence the direction this country should be heading.

This survey is a good start. Accordingly, 72% of our ABC classes (no less) do not agree that the country is hopeless. And that's the best news I have heard in a long time. As they say, hope springs eternal.